When the Sky Was Blue Again
by Uncle Green
Summary: Post ME3. The epilogue you've always wanted. An emotional tale of the Normandy's crew coming to terms with the end of the Reaper War. There will be fights, there will be tears, there will be laughs and so much more. Heavy emphasis on the Shepard/Miri relationship, but will also explore the interactions of the whole gang. Slight Catalyst tweak, but otherwise intact original ending.
1. An End to it All

**Hello ladies and gents! This is my first fanfic, and it's a story that I have been trying to get on paper... err computer screen, for a long while. This is my own shot at tweaking the Mass Effect ending slightly. Anyways, enjoy!**

"Earth." The Illusive Man lay still on the ground, struggling for his last gasps of air. His eyes widened in awe, taking in the picture of a warming sunrise over a burning Europe. Not even Shepard could see his helpless expression... nor the small tear rolling down his face. "I wish you could see it as I do, Shepard. So... perfect." With the slightest of grins on his face, the leader of Cerberus closed his eyes and welcomed the cold embrace of death.

Shepard stood there for a moment at the control panel, sighing as the Illusive Man was finally brought to rest. Part of it was relief; half of his worries were now absolved. Yet another part of it was sympathy, pity for a man who had wanted to give so much to humanity, he blindly ignored the consequences of indoctrination. Confident that the Citadel arms had been fully extended, Shepard took a few steps back, before slouching down beside a wheezing David Anderson.

"Anderson... we did it." John clutched the open wound on his side as he spoke.

"Yes... We did." Anderson opened his eyes, gazing past the debris field outside the viewport and on to the as yet, untouched Alps mountain range, now glistening in the warm rays of the rising Sun. "It's... quite the view."

Shepard felt his usual smirk come on. "Ha! Best seats in the house." His voice lacked the usual heaviness, a trend taken up in recent months.

"God... it feels like years since I just sat down."

"You have earned a rest."

"You ever wonder?" Anderson shifted his gaze to Shepard. "How things would have been different...how our lives would be different... if this hadn't happened?"

Shepard thought for a moment, feeling groggy from the mix of endorphins and adrenaline rushing through his battered body. "Uh huh," was all John could manage to say in his current state.

"I've never had a family, Shepard. Never had children." Shepard could hear a pang of regret, of longing in Anderson's voice.

Wanting to reassure his old mentor, Shepard, still keeping pressure on his open wound, managed to reply, "There will be time enough for that now."

Anderson gave a genuine, hearty laugh as his gaze fell back to the orange and blue marble outside the viewport. "I... I think that ship has sailed." Shepard noticed Anderson's breathing to begin to falter, but there was nothing he could do.

There was a long pause, the sounds of Reaper weapons firing upon thousands of ships. _It will all be over as soon, _Shepard thought. He could make out debris from various Turian, Asari, Geth, Quarian, and Human ships burning up in the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean. The Citadel seemed so peaceful right now, more than it ever did... so detached from the fighting all around it, a refuge among the fires of destruction.

Anderson broke the silence, which startled Shepard a bit more than it would usually have. "What about you? Ever think about settling down?" Anderson returned to face Shepard, struggling to smile.

Putting in as much effort as he could to stay awake, John brought his eyes to meet Anderson's, blinking off the exhaustion... as well as the tears starting to form. "I'm a soldier Anderson, like you." The words were sour as they came off the tongue, so Shepard added. "I'm not really fit for doing anything else."

"Sure you are." Anderson, too, was blinking back the tears, not of sorrow, but as a father would, knowing he would be giving his son his last piece of advice. "Think how proud your kids will be telling everybody that their dad... is Commander Shepard."

"I like the sound of that, but I'm not sure I'd be much good at it though."

"I don't know Shepard... I think you would make a great dad." Anderson hesitated for a moment before adding, "And Miranda would make a great mother."

Shepard smiled, taking note of the gesture of support from the Admiral. Unable to look his dying mentor in the eye now, he instead focused on the deceased Illusive Man across the room. "Not everything I have done is something to be proud of." He remembered Bahak, of the sacrifices during the whole Reaper War, of leaving Ashley to die on Virmire.

Anderson managed to give Shepard a pat on the shoulder, pointing out to the reddish energy emanating from the tip of the Crucible. It wouldn't be long now. "You did good son... you did good." Anderson, whose breathing was now spotty, settled himself in place and raised his hand to shake Shepard's. Shepard, who struggled to find the strength, shook his friend's hand one last time. "I'm... proud of you." And with that, the Admiral became still.

With tears mixing with the blood on his face, John slumped in his spot, staring at the dark void of space. "Thank you, sir."

John lay there a while longer, feeling himself inch closer and closer to eternal sleep. A pair of Oculi flew past the window, the Reapers seemingly ignoring the Crucible. In the distance, Reaper ships blasted apart dreadnought after dreadnought, painting the atmosphere of Earth with fiery orange and white. The largest fleet in galactic history... torn to shreds in the matter of hours.

Shepard closed his eyes to reflect over his whole life. Growing up aboard Arcturus station and various Alliance ships, losing his father to a Batarian raid in his early teens, enlisting in the Alliance as soon as he graduated from high school, his tough and grueling training in Rio de Janeiro, the events on Elysium... _God, that doesn't even seem to have ever been part of my life before, _he thought. John remembered reaching the rank of Lt. Commander, and being designated as an N7.

He then began to reflect over to the events three years ago: the mission of the SR-1 to Eden Prime, becoming the first human Spectre, hunting Saren through the Traverse, the battle with Sovereign on the Citadel. _Nothing compared to this war,_ thought Shepard. Then he remembered accepting death's cold embrace for the first time out in the vacuum of space above Alchera... and waking up to Miranda's eyes beating down on him.

Images of Miranda flashed through his mind, countless meetings on the Citadel, the engine room on the Normandy, even the time spent in combat with her, all picturesque scenes of this beautiful woman he had come to love, all of them began to encourage him to fight just a bit harder.

But he failed, and despite his best effort, John Shepard slipped out of consciousness...

* * *

"Nothing's happening... The Crucible is not firing!" Admiral Hackett's deep, rough voice echoed through the CIC of the Normandy. Liara, who had refused to be taken to the medical center after her and Garrus were airlifted away from the final charge, hung her head in her hands, desperately trying to figure out what to do.

"Admiral, we did everything. The Crucible was built to the exact Prothean specifications; no corners were cut when it came to spending and resources, goddess we even have Shepard onboard the Citadel! What more can we do?!" Liara was shouting in anger now. Their plan had failed. "The Citadel is the Catalyst! We even made sure we covered that!"

"Dr. T'soni, I already told you, we lost Commander Shepard's signal almost thirty minutes ago, right as he and Admiral Anderson boarded the Citadel. It would seem any transmission from the Citadel is being jammed."

"I... I don't know what to tell you Admiral."

Now Javik approached her from the elevator, his eyes set on the image of Admiral Hackett. "Even with the warnings my people left, you still were not prepared!" Javik rested an arm over Liara's armored shoulder. "It is not your fault, T'Soni. My expectations of you were met. I am pleased with your efforts."

Liara just looked up at Javik with a blank stare, unsure whether to thank him or not. Garrus came in from the cockpit, his trusty Kuwashii visor now not functioning, damaged beyond repair. He stood on the top step of the stairs from the cockpit to the CIC taking a look at the scene. Images of Admiral Hackett and the other admirals of the fleet, all of varying races including the Geth, were displayed over the large holotank, each consulting their datapads to coordinate the ships under their commands. Major Alenko was slumped over the dais, at loss for words over their imminent defeat. James was staring at the ground, lost in whatever world he was stuck in. The rest of the Normandy crew, all the engineers, Dr. Chakwas, the marines, Specialist Trainer, as well as the supporting crew members, stood emotionless in the CIC.

Garrus spoke up in the tense silence. "Everybody listen up!" The room slowly turned toward Garrus, their faces showing they weren't in the mood for some morale boosting speech. "Look, Shepard is gone. We don't know his current status, and we can't worry about him now. Sure the Crucible has gone to shit. I wasn't even expecting it to work. But look at what we have here. Every species in the galaxy is partaking in this battle. This, right here, is what Shepard always thought was going to be the key to winning this war. Sure, we are all getting blown to hell, but were we expecting different?"

Kaidan and James now looked at Garrus, intent on listening. Liara and Javik still sulked by Shepard's computer terminal. "Shepard gave a similar speech an hour ago down in London. His words were 'Everybody here has to be willing to die. Anything less and we're already dead.' The Turians also have a saying: 'If one survivor is left standing at the end of this war, then we have a victory.' So let's get off our asses, stop whining, and take out as many Reapers as possible. We have already taken out fourteen of their biggest, so that leaves almost a hundred left. With any luck, we can take out enough here today to leave a fighting chance for the others still kicking ass out there in the galaxy to pull through."

Kaidan began to speak now, as he walked from the dais to where Garrus was standing. "Garrus is right. Shepard wouldn't want us to give up just because our best weapon isn't working. He'd want us to fight here today, to pull ourselves together and do as much damage as possible."

The admirals' holograms nodded. The Geth admiral spoke first among them to everyone's surprise. "The Geth are committed solely to the destruction of the Old Machines. Our platforms will fight until they can no longer operate a weapon system. Our programs will fight until they lack the electrical charge."

The crew began to smile at the Geth's determination. Even Liara and Javik looked up to the holograms now, feeling a renewed fire in their hearts. The other admirals nodded in agreement, as they began to punch orders into their datapads quickly and more violently.

"Our ships are locked into the battle. No retreat," the quarian admiral reported. Garrus gulped. The majority of the quarian population was aboard those ships. Then he realized Tali was not present. Just as he was leaving the stairs to search for her, the door to the War Room opened, and the young quarian and EDI practically ran into the CIC.

"EDI and I cracked the jamming signal! We have a read on Shepard's location!" Tali almost screamed as she pulled up a separate hologram next to the admirals. An image of the Citadel appeared, with an N7 icon appearing where the signal from Shepard was originating from. According to the hologram, Shepard was currently at the base of the Crucible... outside of the Citadel!

* * *

Shepard heard footsteps all around him, but they weren't human. Immediately, Shepard brought his Paladin up to bear, about to shoot the creature staring him the face, until his realized what it was.

"A keeper?" Shepard kept his weapon raised as he finally observed his surroundings. There were seven keepers positioned around him, with one of them working at his side on the wound. Shepard noticed a canister of medigel in the creature's hands. _They are saving me,_ Shepard thought with wonder. He lowered the pistol and let the keeper continue to work.

As John lay back on his head, his heart jumped to his throat as he saw that he was on the exterior wall of the Citadel. Red beams emanating from Reaper weapons were firing on all sides of him, yet the allied fleet was fighting back with more vigor than he had remembered at the beginning of the battle. The awesome fury of the battle above him almost made John not notice the tall firing mechanism of the Crucible seeming to rise kilometers above him.

As he glared at the inactive and dormant Crucible, the keeper administering the medigel finished and backed up rapidly. John raised an eyebrow and pushed himself up off the ground. His wounds still burned with pain, but at least he had the strength now to stand up. He scratched the inside of his ear at the sound of a faint buzzing.

"Shepard." John was startled when he heard the voice. At first, he thought it was just a hallucination, until he heard it speak again, in a voice of a young child. He spun around on his heel. He couldn't believe what was approaching him.

"You are Commander John Shepard, Captain of the Normandy SR-2, Council Spectre, and defeater of Saren Arterius, correct?"

"Yes. I am." A ghostly figure of a young boy was approaching John now, clad in what seemed to be an ordinary hoody and jeans. John was baffled. The entity walked, talked, and looked like the kid from Vancouver. "Wha… What are you?"

"I am the Catalyst."

"But I thought the Citadel was the Catalyst."

"The Citadel is part of me." The child spoke with complete calmness, in complete contrast to the raging battle overhead.

"How can I activate the Crucible?"

"You can't. Not without my help. I activated the automatic override for the Crucible. The Reapers are my solution." The child beckoned for Shepard to follow.

Shepard limped behind the slowly moving child. "Solution to what?"

"Chaos. The created will always rebel against their creators."

"You mean synthetics." The child looked around and nodded, still continuing its march for what appeared to be a central beam of energy of some sort.

"My Reapers are my solution to synthetic rebellion. They cleanse the galaxy of organics when they achieve the capability of constructing artificial intelligence."

"So it's a sort of dues ex machina then?"

The child stopped and turned around, but did not reply. "My solution requires... a change. This cycle is different from the others." John looked around. Before him were three different paths to separate sections of the Crucible.

John crossed his arms and smirked. "Different in the sense that the synthetics and organics are working together to stop you?"

The child furrowed its eyebrows at the battered Shepard and simply replied, "Yes."

"I've got my own idea of how to change your solution." The buzzing sound grew a bit louder, causing John to rub his temple a bit in order to sooth the headache it was causing.

"Shepard, we know you seek to destroy us, but you do not comprehend how valuable the cycles are. The cycles keeps balance in check, keeps organics and synthetics from destroying one another and the galaxy."

"Oh, so it's about the galaxy, too?" John was swimming blind here, trying his hardest to find an angle to work.

The child nodded. "If synthetics and organics continued their eternal conflicts, they will develop greater weapons of mass destruction, which could cause massive destruction throughout the galaxy. Or it perhaps could lead to the uplifting of fledgling species to fight. You see what that did to your cycle's Krogan."

The child had a point, John thought to himself. The solution was drastic, way out of proportion, yet logical if thought through the mind of a machine. "But you still mentioned a possibility for a change to your 'solution.'"

"Yes. As you pointed out, synthetics and organics are fighting alongside one another while we speak. But even if you could defeat my Reapers, the peace would not last. You would all go back to your infighting as soon as this war was over." The child spoke in a matter-of-fact way, confident that its philosophy was sound.

"And that is why you destroyed your creators, no?" John decided to play this side of the field for now, desperate for an attempt to persuade this entity to see things from an organic's viewpoint. John now had to start focusing his eyes a bit more as the oily black shadows of pain and exhaustion crept into his field of vision.

"Our creators were allowed to supersede what should have been the limit for artificial intelligence technology. This was due to a lack of an outside force keeping them in check, like the Reapers. When the creators crafted the very first Reaper, Harbinger, they soon realized their mistake of playing god when Harbinger rebelled and began the first cycle of cleansing." John could catch the faintest smirk form across the child's face.

John thought for a moment. If Harbinger had been the first, then… "Alright, hold up then. If Harbinger was the first Reaper, then where did you come from?"

"Your organic mind is incapable of understanding, Shepard. While each Reaper is a nation, they all network together to become one force. From that growing network of Reaper consciousness, I was spawned to be the central direction and control."

Everything else seemed to be blotted out now except the child. The buzzing was growing worse, and the dark images were making it very hard for John to see anything besides the entity in front of him. "So… ugh…" The headache was causing splitting pain for Shepard, much to the apparent amusement of the child.

The child spoke up. "See, John Shepard. Your mind is trying to process something it cannot hope to truly understand. That is why I am going to present you with three options to make the decision easier on you."

"I fight for…ow… free will! Not for predetermination!"

"When you hear my new solutions, you will understand why you couldn't come up with them yourself."

John fell to his knees unable to stand with all the pain now rushing to his head. The buzzing wouldn't stop, and he could barely see anything at all now, save the child's eerie face. All outside noises and distractions were now barred from his mind, which was odd, given the ferocity of the battle overhead.

"Your first choice is Control. I lack the… insight an organic mind would. Perhaps it is time for a new Reaper AI to succeed me." The child scratched its holographic chin before proceeding. "You would only have to upload your consciousness to the Reaper network, and you shall be the new direction and control."

The headache stopped suddenly, John exhaling in relief that the pain was gone. He was eyelevel with the child now, staring it down, intent on listening. "And the Reapers would obey me?"

"Yes, you could halt this cycle if you wanted to. But the upload will change you. You will cease to be the person you are now, and become something more."

"Huh… so the Illusive Man was right… what else?"

The child grinned. "The second option is a personal favorite of mine. Synthesis. You would add your energy to the Crucible. By doing so, your essence would be sent out across the galaxy, converting all synthetic life to a hybrid form. They would no longer seek to destroy their creators. But the transformation works both ways. By merging with the energy of the Crucible, you would also merge your DNA with synthetic code, which in turn, would be sent out, making all organics part synthetic."

John squinted his eyes, now able to see clearer than ever. "And that would solve things how?"

The child gestured to the beam of green energy at the center of the Crucible. Peace. "It is what is gained when organics are harvested at the end of each cycle. When organic matter is combined with synthetic materials, two becomes one. They will have the strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither. They become the Reapers. And they shall not have to be cleansed."

That almost made the most sense to John. There would be no violence, no need to waste any more lives fighting the Reapers, and there would be everlasting peace between organics and synthetics. John remembered his debate with Saren in the Council chambers all those years ago… God… had Shepard actually been the wrong one then?

"And the third?"

The child now squinted its eyes. "Surely you are considering one of the two I have mentioned already?"

"I like to have all my options on the table."

"Very well. The third option is the one you have pursued this whole time, Shepard. Destruction of the Reapers. But…"

"I'll take that one," John interrupted. As soon as the words left his tongue, the buzzing and vision blur returned again, and John once again clutched his head.

The child didn't pay attention to John's suffering. "But… there is a cost. The Crucible was designed many cycles ago to create a surge of powerful energy that would be transmitted across every known frequency, completely and efficiently overloading every synthetic life form in the galaxy."

John pushed through the pain, trying to cling to his rational side despite its intensity. "Why wouldn't it destroy organic life though?"

Uncrossing its arms, the star child answered as-a-matter-of-factly. "Think about it, Shepard. Most organics cannot network themselves through electromagnetic radiation. Synthetics, like the Geth, are able to tap into the majority of the electromagnetic spectrum, which allows them to network with each other. The Reapers also communicate through this form. The firing of the Crucible would overload every frequency imaginable with the energy of a small star for a split second, long enough to destroy their minds."

John immediately realized the implications of this. "What about my ship's AI? Would she…"

"Yes. As well as you, John Shepard. You are part synthetic now too. I detect a semi-complete control chip in your cerebral cortex. It has been implemented in your central nervous system in such a way that you will die from the Crucible blast as well. However, the explosion caused by you releasing the Crucible's automatic override would kill you first."

_So Miranda had already started installing the control chip? _John thought. He was outraged at the thought, but in a sense he wasn't surprised. John knew he had a high chance of dying, hell, he had even given a pep talk just a few hours ago that everybody fighting must be willing to die. But as he stood here now, facing death in the eyes…

The holographic entity in front of him must have picked up on his indecision. It then added, "You have the choice, John. You can die a martyr in your crusade against the Reapers, you sacrifice yourself for continual peace, or you can ascend yourself to be a god and control the most powerful force in existence. The choice is yours."

A drop of sweat rolled down the charred skin of his face, as his gaze jumped back and forth among his three options, carefully considering each one. John Shepard knew that destroying the Reapers was what he had been working toward for the past several years, but now he experienced something unexpected: hesitation.

"Choose," demanded the Catalyst, a hint of impatience in its voice.

John sat there in silence, the buzzing in his head now mild, but still present. He looked over to his wound and noticed the medigel was starting to degrade. Unless he got medical attention soon, he would likely perish. And the odds of receiving any sort of evac now would be next to nothing.

He began to contemplate destroying the Reapers once and for all. He eyed what appeared to be a tall, metal tank bathed in red light at the far right side of the Crucible. He remembered Liara's briefing with him just before the final assault on Earth. She went over how to activate the Crucible from the Citadel's control center… as well as deactivate the Crucible should anything go wrong. "The Protheans made the modification of adding an automatic override in the schematics, which was clearly identified with a red emergency light be our engineers. The override should only be activated if there is a hardware failure within the Crucible…" John could hear Liara's words echo in his thoughts.

By dwelling on destroying the Reapers, John again felt a surge of pain rush into his head. But instead of remaining on the ground, kneeling at the feet of the child, he stood up and tried to fight it. He was starting to have an idea of where the pain was coming from…

Noticing John stand up, the Catalyst asked, "Have you made a decision, Shepard?"

John smiled, despite the pain. "Yes I have." The Catalyst's child-like avatar smiled as a little boy would when his parents gave in to his excessive whining.

"Good. Now go, John Shepard. The fate of the galaxy is in your hands."

The commander began his painful limp toward the shimmering, blinding light of the Crucible. _So the Reaper's were desperate enough to try and use this on me? After everything, they come down to their cheapest method? _John laughed inside at the thought. As he made a right turn onto the path to the Crucible's automatic override, the Catalyst appeared next to him.

"Shepard, have you thought this through?! Think of what you could gain from the Reapers? Think about the Geth, of your AI friend EDI!" The Catalyst's voice showed signs of worry, of fear almost.

"I have thought this through," replied Shepard. "I know you're desperate, Harbinger, but indoctrination? Really? You think I'm another Saren? Or Illusive Man? I'm John Shepard, and you should know me by now." John's own confidence was drowning out the pain now. He was more confident now than ever, more confident than he was during the Skyllian Blitz, more confident than he was going through the Omega 4 Relay, even more confident than when he talked both Saren and the Illusive Man down despite their own indoctrination. He had scored a checkmate against an ancient AI, one who had destroyed countless civilizations and no doubt corrupted its fair share of heroes.

John saw out of the corner of his eye that Harbinger and a group of Reapers were now on their way to intercept the Citadel from the surface of the Earth, but John knew that they would never reach him in time. He made one final turn that put him on the path straight to the Crucible's override.

"I am the Catalyst! You cannot stop the Reapers without me!" the child avatar exclaimed. Its voice started to get deeper, to the point of sounding an awful lot like the same voice John heard at the Collector Base. Harbinger's. "A mere organic cannot hope to stop the cycle permanently!"

John simply chuckled by Harbinger's struggling. Only twenty meters to go and all of this would end.

"We are your ascension! We are your destiny! We are the solution! We are your masters!" Harbinger, a billion-year-old AI, was throwing a tantrum at Commander Shepard, a thirty-one-year-old human.

John let out a strong laugh, watching Harbinger and his fellow Reapers charge their beams, which were aimed at the Crucible. Ironically, after fifty thousand years in dark space, they lacked five more precious seconds to stop John Shepard.

"No, I know what you are, Harbinger." John raised his arm, Paladin in hand. He smiled, knowing it would be the last time he did so. "You are a machine. And I don't know if your buddy Sovereign had time to pass along the message, but machines can be broken."

He began to unload the hand cannon into the main structure of the automatic override. One by one, each shot melted deeper and deeper into the thick titanium plating covering whatever hardware was inside. Each shot brought the war one centimeter closer to the end.

The child had all but disappeared from his side, and as John looked up, he let out a sigh of relief. Every single Reaper was now falling back including Harbinger, desperate to reach dark space before the Crucible fired. John had won. The galaxy had won. This realization alone caused every worry, doubt and fear accumulated in his mind over the last several years to vanish. He was free, and he didn't even feel anything when the explosion hit.

**Let me know what you all think, and if you'd like a continuation, maybe an epilogue, maybe another story. I've got plans for both. Personally, I feel Shepard still has some more to give to the galaxy, and I'd like to explore the area where the game leaves off.**

**I'll see if this sticks, if not, it's a standalone chapter.**


	2. Nobody Left Behind

**So due to the overall support I have received after posting the first chapter (thank you by the way everyone!) I have decided to continue this story! Can't really give an estimate on how many chapters it will be, but just be prepared for an exciting story over the next few months.**

"Left flank needs support! Charlie Squad! Assist! Assist!"

She ducked just in time as a slug from a Ravager's long range cannon flew centimeters over her head, which then impacted on a concrete wall several meters away from the trench. Shouts of Alliance marines were heard on all sides as the Reaper ground forces began to surge through the side streets, making a final push for the entrenched soldiers.

With little maneuvering space, she crawled past the feet of a marine operating the mounted heavy cannon. The sound of the firing heavy weapon was deafening, and she would have to move farther down the line to be able to even hear the progress of Charlie squad.

A few short minutes ago marked the beginning of an intense, yet ominous downpour- a mix of water and ash was now filling the trenches with thick mud, making Miranda's crawling even more strenuous. Her usual white catsuit would have been a poor choice for these conditions; yet luckily she had anticipated the need for something more durable. Now, she was sporting her old black Cerberus armor she had worn during the Collector mission while serving aboard the Normandy SR-2.

Miranda was surprised when the Alliance Brass gave her command of a full platoon when she had reported for duty at the Crucible. Apparently, they had all been briefed on the Collector mission while Shepard was being held in Vancouver, so they already had an idea of her capabilities as a battlefield tactician. Still, it was very desperate of the Alliance to offer command roles to ex-Cerberus operatives, but they also had no other choice.

The trench was a bit taller at this next section, which allowed Miranda to get on her feet and crouch-run for the last ten meters. The Reapers had intensified their push, but the marines were still holding. Dirt and debris were being kicked up on all sides as Miranda reached the far end of the trench. Finally reaching her destination, she leaned her back against the trench wall and slouched to the ground, Tempest sub machine gun held in her hands.

She leaned over to the woman next to her and shouted over the intense noises of gunfire, "Charlie Squad is going to need stronger barriers for their push, Jack!"

"Yeah, yeah." Jack, still clad in her usual jacket and cargo pants, yelled over her shoulder to the teenagers behind her. "What the fuck guys? Prioritize!"

"Thanks." Miranda peaked over the top of the trench, looking for any sign of Charlie squad. She saw movement in the heaps of twisted I-beams on the other side of the street. A band of Husks ran toward their intended targets in the debris piles, before getting blasted into pieces by Charlie Squad's shotguns. She noticed glowing purple fields around the marines, indicating that Jack's students' barriers were now holding strong once again. _Good, _she thought. _That ought to by us some time. _

She hated this. Buying time with the lives of people under her command. She would have had no problem with it back in her early days at Cerberus, when only the objective mattered, yet the Collector mission changed her. Shepard had changed her. But Admiral Hackett's orders were clear. All Alliance ground forces had to hold their exact positions until Hammer had reached the beam. As long as the brunt of Reaper troops were distracted by the various entrenched fire teams on this side of London, then Anderson and Shepard _should _have no problem reaching their destination relatively unscathed.

A nearby grenade detonation brought her mind back to the situation at hand. She checked the vital signs of her team through her sentry visor. All marines accounted for, yet Charlie Squad's heart rates were skyrocketing. She peered through a gap in the upturned asphalt farther down the trench and saw the cause for her left flank's terror. A trio of Banshees was tearing Charlie to pieces, and there was nothing Miranda could do about it. Her line was collapsing, and something had to be done.

"Jack!"

"Just a minute, princess!" Jack shouted as she sent a powerful biotic shockwave hurtling down the street, ripping apart a cluster of Cannibals. With her arms still glowing blue from the impressive display of biotics, she slouched back down to face Miranda. "What?"

"Get your students back to the FOB. We will continue to hold here." Miranda tossed a grenade behind her over the wall of the trench, much to the dismay of the charging Marauders, which were blown to small bits upon detonation.

"For what? So you and the power rangers here can play hero? Fuck no!"

"Jack! This position is lost! If you care about your students you need to get them back to safety. Other fire teams will need them!"

Jack looked at Miranda was her jaw slightly gaping, but she didn't say a word. She simply stood up and fired another shockwave at the oncoming Marauders, delaying another Reaper forward charge.

"Sorry, cheerleader. You need us here. Your boyfriend needs us here. We ain't baling, are we Rodriguez?"

The young teenage girl shouted back, "Fuck no, sir!"

Miranda smiled at the student's imitation of her teacher. She looked at Jack again and made an approving nod, before standing up and firing her Tempest into the head of Husk no more than two meters away. The Reapers were gaining fast, and there was no way her team could hold them back much longer.

* * *

"Commander Shepard!" Joker tried to raise John over the comm, but to no avail. Just static.

Garrus, Liara, Kaiden, Tali, Javik, and James were piled in the cockpit behind Joker and EDI. The Normandy was orbiting the Citadel now while the fleet battle raged fiercely around them. Turian fighters, now locked into the engagement, were relentlessly pursuing a squadron of Oculi right past the Normandy's viewports.

"How come the Reapers aren't firing at us?" James noticed how not a single Reaper was even taking notice of them. They all seemed to be focused on the Alliance 5th Fleet, which was spearheaded by the SSV Everest, Admiral Hackett's flagship.

"The Reaper IFF that we acquired is still functioning nominally. The Reapers are either not seeing us as the biggest threat out here, or more probably, they think we are an indoctrinated ship." EDI spoke as she flicked through various screens displayed in front of her, using the Normandy's electronic countermeasures to scramble the Oculi targeting algorithms.

"Not a threat? After all those late nights I spent calibrating?" Garrus mused. Although his face showed determination, every minute that went by without contact from the Commander caused his hopes to drop ever so slightly. The eerie static from Shepard's lack of reply permeated the cockpit, and nobody spoke for a long time.

Joker decided to change course for the Crucible-Citadel junction to see if they could get a visual of Shepard, but just as soon as the Crucible came into view through the forward viewports, alarms started blaring all around. "Massive energy spike in superstructure of the Crucible," EDI reported, now shifting her attention to reports from external sensors. She looked up at Liara. "What is the magnitude required for the primary ignition of the Crucible?"

Liara leaned over the back of EDI's co-pilot chair to take a look at the readings. "At least one point seventeen… Goddess… the main power-up sequence has started… He did it!"

Sure enough, the energy emanating from the tip of the Crucible was intensifying, and the lights along the ward arms of the Citadel began to flicker on and off as the Crucible drew tremendous amounts of power.

"Look!" Tali pointed at a trio of Reapers leaving the vicinity of the Citadel, racing past the Normandy at an incalculably high speed toward the direction of the Charon Relay. In succession, each Reaper disappeared as it jumped into FTL travel. The Reapers knew what was coming, and they didn't like it one bit.

"That's right you pendejos! Run!" James smirked at the fleeing squid-looking ships, relaxing his shoulders as the space battle was coming to a close. The young lieutenant never liked staying onboard a ship during a fight; he'd rather be raining hell with his boots on the ground.

Joker was ignoring all of them, focusing his attention on weaving through the bands of retreating Reapers. He pulled several rolls that an ordinary Alliance frigate could never handle, avoiding collisions by mere meters. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead while he rapidly punched at the controls, keeping the Normandy from meeting an ugly, fiery death. "Shit! I've got to get us out of this, guys!"

Garrus stepped forward and looked up and out the viewport. "There!" He pointed to a long catwalk leading from the Citadel tower to the Crucible. "Put us down there, Joker! We need to make sure no one is left behind!"

* * *

Everything hurt. His ears were ringing and his eyes were burning. His bones, if any were still intact, ached as if each one was submerged in molten tungsten. The skin… the skin was burnt. No easy way to put it. It was as if he had been resting on an open grill for hours, the way his skin was charred and deformed. Ironically the pain was good. It meant he was alive.

As full consciousness sept into his mind, he inhaled suddenly, taking in a mouthful of hot, thin air. His eyelids tore apart from one another, the skin partially fused together by the heat. The eyeballs rotated in their sockets, observing his surroundings. He was covered in paneling and wires from head to toe. His armor… well, couldn't be classified as armor anymore. The only layer left was the skin tight, black fabric body suit, and even it was shredded with bits of fabric tangled in the loose hanging flesh of Shepard's arms. Perhaps the only thing recognizable about him was the pair of N7 dog tags strewn across his chest.

As his breathing slowly but steadily began to gain strength, he was able to begin flexing each muscle group to see what worked and what didn't. Most, if not all his ribs were broken, and one lung was at least partially collapsed. His legs were still functional, surprisingly, but they ached under the combined weight of the above debris pressing into his shins. His left arm, the one that wasn't aimed toward the explosion when he was shooting at the Crucible's automatic override, was still movable, but the right arm was all but pulverized.

His N7 training kicking in, John began to assess the situation. His efforts at destroying the automatic override were apparently a success, he was still on the exterior of the Citadel, and there was a faint hum of engines…. _Wait, _John thought. There was a ship within the breathable atmosphere of the Citadel, and its thrust was kicking up small gusts of wind, which were blowing at the sides of the paneling covering Shepard. _It must be big, _thought Shepard. _This must be my evac. _

With all the strength he had in his left arm, he pushed at the wreckage right over his head to the side. As the first piece of debris left the pile and landed on the ground next to him with a loud thump, John felt a rumble surge through the floor. He began to dig his way out of the pile of scrap, and with the help of the wind created by the nearby ship's thrust, the wiring and lightweight panels easily slid off his body. He was now almost completely exposed, lying with his back on the floor.

He rolled to his side to see his savior, using up every bit of energy left in his feeble body. When he caught sight of the nearby ship, he couldn't help but let out a relieved chuckle. The Normandy was glistening in the now direct sunlight as she hovered barely three meters above the catwalk; her engines emitted a deep, calming hum, the only sound audible at the time. John deduced that it was probably doing a thorough scanning of the heat signatures in the area in order to find him, so he relaxed carefully on his back, knowing it wouldn't be long until he was being scooped onto a stretcher.

But he waited several minutes before looking up again, taking note that he heard no approaching footsteps. Then he realized… he was less than a meter away from the burning wreckage of the override. The Normandy would never pick up his signature if he continued to remain there. Then there was another rumbling noise, this time John noticed the catwalk to the Crucible's central energy beam collapse and fall slowly toward the Citadel's gravity well.

He had to move, that much was clear, but John could barely bring himself to roll over again. He struggled and struggled against the overwhelming pain, but eventually he was in a kneeling position. He stayed there for a moment, contemplating whether he remain and be taken away by the collapsing structure of the Crucible. Yet as soon as the thought hit is mind, he wanted to slap himself. No way was he going to die here, not now after everything that had happened… not when he was being given a chance to be with Miranda again.

He pushed himself to his feet, but came down again as his knees gave in. He sucked in a breath of the warm, thin air and rose again. And without a second thought, he began the end run toward the Normandy. One foot after another impacted the hard floor, sending a shock of intense pain coursing through his body, yet he continued running as fast as he could. All that was gone in his life came back one last time; he could hear the shouts of the fallen pushing him along. John felt the hands of Mordin, Legion, Ashley, and Thane on his back, giving him the extra speed he so desperately needed.

John smiled as he ran hard, harder than he ever had. There was only one hundred meters between him and the Normandy's airlock. Still, nobody was coming out to help him. He kept up his pace, never looking back, yet he decided to look up for a moment, not at the Reapers retreating through the burning corpses of destroyed ships, but at the hopeful stars twinkling beyond.

Another rumble shook the floor, causing the catwalk to the Crucible's upload apparatus, the same tool Harbinger wanted Shepard to use to "control" the Reapers, was detached and sent floating down to the Earth below. Seeing this, John so desperately reached farther and farther with his legs, knowing full well that exerting himself like this could very well kill him even before he could reach the Normandy.

He was now running along the main path from the Crucible to the Citadel tower, where the keeper administered him the medigel. John looked down at the large wound on his side. There was just a bit of residual medigel on his exposed skin, and nothing keeping the torrential amount of blood from spilling with each stride he took. The Normandy was hovering just ahead, with the doors to the cargo bay fully opened on his right. And standing at the edge of the loading ramp scanning the area was none other than…

* * *

"Shepard!" Garrus caught sight of his friend running along the upward sloping catwalk away from the Crucible. The power fluctuations from the Crucible were now causing bits of debris to be thrown up off the floor, and miniature bolts of electric discharge were licking at Shepard's feet as he charged ahead.

Garrus, now wearing his sealed breather helmet, was about to jump from the deck of the Normandy to the Citadel when one of the discharges struck the Normandy, causing her to veer off from her position slightly. Worse still, the entire catwalk Shepard was now sprinting on was now being jettisoned away from the Crucible, down to the surface of the Earth.

Shepard was only ten meters away from the cargo bay now, his face strained from all the excess pain surging through the nerve endings all over his body. He pumped his arms with all his might, his legs closing the distance between him and Garrus. The catwalk was slowly floating down, which made getting up to the Normandy another obstacle in John's way.

Garrus stretched out his hand toward John as far as he could. "Jump, you bastard!" Shepard leapt upward from his current position, now free floating in the air between the platform and the Normandy. Time went in slow motion for him, as he saw bits of debris mixed with static discharges encircling him. Reapers were jumping into FTL all around the Citadel, running away from the Crucible's impending activation. But John then focused on Garrus's outstretched hand, remembering how Garrus also caught him during their flight from the Collector base.

Garrus secured his hand around Shepard's in a split second, hauling him into the open cargo bay just as fast. Shepard, knowing he was now safe, let the dark consume him as he fell unconscious again. Feeling Shepard go limp in his arms, Garrus shouted, "EDI close the doors! Get us the hell out of here!"

There was another thud as a bolt of electric discharge struck the docked shuttle in the cargo bay, causing it to detonate in a cloud of orange sparks, which rained down upon Garrus and John. Garrus, shielding his friend's exposed body as best as he could, shouted through the radio again. "EDI! Now!"

Joker came over the intercom. "EDI isn't responding Garrus. I'm sealing the ship up right now. Chakwas and Liara are on their way with a stretcher!" Garrus sighed. He leaned back against the now closed cargo bay doors and closed his eyes. Mission accomplished.

"EDI! Talk to me baby!" Joker was shouting anxiously as he focused his eyes on the panels in front of him, dodging explosion after explosion as the whole Crucible-Citadel junction was now tearing itself apart. As soon as he turned the Normandy around to face away from Earth, a Reaper passed less than a kilometer in front. "Shit!"

EDI was lying motionless in her chair, her head tilted back, and her eyes were closed. As soon as the Normandy approached the Citadel to pick Shepard up, EDI, who had been in charge of scanning for Shepard's vitals, began to behave erratically before finally going dormant.

"Joker, the Protheans never fired the Crucible. I cannot guarantee the blast won't destroy us as well." Javik was standing behind the pilot's chair, with his arms crossed. Everyone else had filed out of the cockpit as soon Shepard was aboard.

"Yeah, thanks Mister Spock." Joker was busy calculating new jump coordinates when a familiar voice broke through the static over the inter-fleet communications channel.

"The Crucible is armed. The Reapers are retreating. All ships disengage and get the hell out of here!" Admiral Hackett's orders had only been relayed a few seconds before Joker saw all the ships of the allied fleet begin to turn toward the rally point. One by one, each ship made an FTL jump for the intended rendezvous.

Joker, too, made the necessary course corrections, but before he entered the final jump command, he pulled up a rear view of the ship, looking back at the destruction behind him. There were chunks of debris everywhere: some parts belonged to Alliance ships, some to Turian, some Geth, but there were also several "dead" Reapers floating among the wreckage. Earth, now completely bathed in the warm glow of the Sun, was still burning in its bright, bloody red. And with a final look to the now charging Crucible, Joker said a silent goodbye to Earth, unsure if it would survive the impending blast. Then, with one punch of a button, the Normandy sped off toward Alpha Centauri.

* * *

"Rodriguez!" The teenage biotic student was on the muddy floor of the trench, not responding. "Get up, girl!" Jack ran over to her student, whom she had treated as a little sister. The girl had been shot through the head by a Ravager's cannon, and it was pretty clear that she was dead, with blood oozing from her shattered skull.

"Ffffff…. UCK!" Jack charged her biotics to the max and clambered over the wall of the trench, throwing warp after warp at the nearby Husks. Bits of the Reaper tech and flesh exploded everywhere her biotics touched, and she had attracted quite the amount of attention. A Brute, seemingly on its way to avenge its comrades, charged toward Jack, who was sill ripping Husks apart by the dozens and shouting every profane word imaginable.

Miranda popped up from behind cover and shot her Tempest into the side of the Brute, but to no avail. The Brute kept charging, bringing its arm up to make a violent swing at the raging biotic woman.

Just as the Brute's arm was swinging down toward Jack's head a blue field wrapped around the Brute, freezing it in place. This delay allowed Jack to see that she was in danger, before doing a backflip to gain some distance between her and the huge hulk of a Reaper solider beside her. She looked over at Miranda, gave an understanding nod, and charged her shockwave.

Miranda did so as well, and, as soon as the Brute was free of the stasis field, both women let out a surge of blue biotic power barreling toward the target, causing the Brute to blast apart. The two biotics didn't have time to regroup though, as a Ravager flew in between the nearby buildings, raining fire on the marines' position. At the same time, it began dropping deployment pods of Cannibals and Husks.

"I… AM… KROGAN!" That was the last thing those Reaper forces ever heard as a convoy of Krogan trucks and troopers came barreling out from a back alley a little ways down the street from the trench. Leading the charge was none other than Urdnot Grunt, who, still decked out in his silvery blue armor, began opening fire with his Claymore. Miranda and Jack both joined the Krogan in gunning down the Reaper troops from both sides, which ended fairly quickly as the last Husk's head exploded.

The Krogan trucks continued down the street toward the entrenched marines, who were now cheering at the approaching Krogan cavalry. Even Miranda let a smile creep on her face as her old friend came running at them, still wielding his Claymore. Jack sulked back into the shadows.

Grunt stopped above the trench, looking down at Miranda. "Hrmph! These Reapers aren't as vocal as their Collector counterparts, but they still are fun to kill." He slid down the muddy sides of the trench, with the rain still pouring all around. The water splashed across his scaly skin, washing away what Reaper blood he had just accumulated in the last skirmish.

"Good to know you are having fun while Earth is still burning," Miranda said with a sting in her voice, she crossed her arms and stared the Krogan down. Normally Grunt would stare back, but with Miranda being Shepard's mate, he backed down.

"Sorry. I was just excited." Grunt looked down at the ground, observing tiny worms roll around in the dirt. He thought about eating them, but decided it would be inappropriate in front of the humans. He tried to focus his attention elsewhere, but his stomach growled when he noticed another Krogan eating a live rat.

"Any word on Hammer team, Grunt?"

Grunt shifted his attention back to Miranda and smiled. "Miranda, the Battlemaster put up one hell of a fight in the charge to the beam, or so I hear. I believe he also made it up to the Citadel as well." He smiled and stood up straight, proud to have followed such a strong and courageous Battlemaster.

"You 'believe?!'" Miranda's eyes squinted at Grunt in frustration.

"Well… I think he…"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. What sounded like the loudest roar of thunder ever echoed through the streets of London. Curious eyes watched the skies for the inevitable arrival of more Reapers descending from the upper atmosphere, but nothing ever came. Miranda and Grunt climbed up out of the trench and walked along with the crowd of marines and Krogan down the street toward the apparent source of the noise.

They all came to a hill overlooking an intense battle below. Reaper destroyers seemed to slither their way through downtown as they fired beam after beam at the soldiers scurrying at their feet. Squads wielding M-920 Cains were firing from rooftops, and their efforts created an almost mesmerizing fireworks show around the legs of the walking Reaper destroyers.

The loud roar came yet again, and this time Miranda caught sign of something just over the sky above Big Ben. She pointed it out to Grunt, and wondering eyes all started gazing at the growing orange light in the clouds above the clock tower. With a violent display of force, the orange light washed into the city in a form of a wave, traveling across the ground at supersonic speeds. The Reaper destroyers barely had time to react as the wave crashed right through them and across the battlefield.

Miranda closed her eyes and braced as the wave of energy quickly approached her group and waited for it to hit. But after a moment of waiting, she opened her eyes again, and turned around to watch the wave carry on out of the city and into the Atlantic Ocean. Turning her attention to the Reaper destroyers now, she noticed that they were covered in a sort of red lightning. The lacked any sort of movement now, and after a minute of standing motionless, they fell down on their sides, crushing the buildings below them.

Everyone, including the Krogan, was silent for several minutes, but then it came. A roar, much louder than the thunderous one heard just before the wave descended on London, carried all the way up to Miranda and Grunt's position. It was the sound of many species cheering in unison, it was the sound of hope, and it was the sound of victory.

The Krogan around her erupted into the loudest shouts of masculinity Miranda ever heard, and she felt herself be picked up, much to her disappoint, by Grunt, who hoisted her on his shoulders. She smacked Grunt on the armor a couple times in protest, but eventually gave in and joined the cheering, despite her reluctance against it.

She was thinking of Shepard, and while still keeping her celebratory face on, gazed up into the clouds, knowing that he had indeed succeeded, but still wondering if he was going to keep his promise…

**I had fun writing the Jack/Miranda scenes in this chapter, and plan on adding more squad member interactions in subsequent chapters. I have a general idea of where this story is going now, and honestly, I can't wait to write the ending. It's already sounding great in my notes!**

**Also, I am in the process of finding a better cover picture for this fic. If anyone has any thoughts as to what it could be, please PM me and I'll be sure to credit you if I end up using your idea!**


	3. Tending the Wounds

**A/N Here is some more of that squadmate interaction I promised. Be ready for a feels trip… Also, changed rating back to T for now. Reviewed the already posted chapters and my personal plot notes, and I don't really foresee any mature content, nor do I see any in here currently.**

**EDIT: Just added the section breaks in. Sorry for any prior confusion!**

The entire ship shook after dropping out of FTL. Datapads, marines, and anything else not secured to the deck was tossed about before the inertial dampeners came to full strength. Alarms all across the deck blared as bulkheads buckled and hull plating was breached from the jarring deceleration. Only one person stood resolute, despite the commotion, and that was none other than Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett.

The man stood out from the other bridge officers, most of whom were sweaty, grizzly, unshaven, and on the floor. The admiral, clad in his usual blue and gold uniform, released his firm clamp on the nearby handlebar, and strolled to the central holotank of the SSV Everest's bridge. Each step was calm, calculated, and identical. Not even the worst casualties in the history of the galaxy brought the slightest bit of dismay upon the man's stalwart gaze.

"Status report," was all the Admiral uttered upon approaching the holotank. A disoriented officer clad in his working fatigues, stood up from the deck and pulled out his still intact datapad.

"Sir, ship hull integrity at forty percent, fires on decks alpha through…" The officer was frantically scrolling through the shipboard VI's assessment of the damage to the Everest when Hackett raised his right hand to signal for him to stop.

"I was asking about the fleet," Hackett growled in his deep, husky voice. Although he cared greatly for the men and women aboard his ship, he'd have to trust the emergency teams to deal with any damage. Hackett was in command of something much greater than one individual ship.

"Ah, yes sir. It seems many other ships have sustained moderate to severe damage to their outer hulls. Requesting individual status reports from the other admirals right now…" The officer had just finished when the whole ship shook again, but much milder this time.

An orange light surged through the bridge, engulfing everything in a fiery hue for a split second before disappearing. Now, all the other officers and bridge staff stood up from the floor and looking around, inspecting the ship's systems for any sign of damage.

"What the hell was that?!" Hackett was now walking among the scurrying crew as he did his own inspection of the bridge. The other officer with the datapad trailed behind him.

"Not sure, Admiral. All of our datapads are resetting, VIs are rebooting, and the navigational systems seem unscathed."

"So an EMP?"

"Yes sir. All other ships in the fleet are reporting in with the same issues. All except the Geth, sir."

"Send a shuttle over to their flagship at once. They might be having trouble with their systems." Hackett stopped at the large observation window looking out at the binary star system in front of him. "And raise the Normandy. I need them back at operational status."

* * *

"Put some more pressure on the wound!"

"I need some more bandages here, Liara!"

"He's going into shock. Chakwas, we need to operate!"

The crew deck of the Normandy was suddenly filled with frantic commotion as Liara, Dr. Chakwas, Tali, and Garrus rushed through the mess hall with Shepard on a stretcher, who was inches from death. The doors to the medical bay hissed open as Liara and Chakwas pushed the stretcher through.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Garrus stood at the door, watching Liara scramble through the drawers for surgical gear.

"Not at the moment, Garrus. You and Tali should go help with repairs." Liara was disinfecting her hands as Chakwas was pulling a set of scrubs over her uniform.

"Righ…" The doors sealed in front of him before he could finish. He wasn't sure what to think right now. The medical bay was soundproof, and the windows automatically tinted black while a red notice flashed across: SURGERY IN PROGRESS. All he could hear now was the silent hum of the life support systems and the faint buzz of the Tantalus drive core.

He didn't know what to do now. The most intense battle of his life was now concluded, the war was seemingly over, and his best friend was now clinging to life by a thread. He stood there silently with Tali for a few minutes before she spoke. "Come on. We should head down to engineering…" Tali had a sort of emptiness in her voice.

Garrus looked down to the quarian on his left. He gave a genuine Turian smile before replying. "Go on ahead. I need to get out of this armor." His usual blue and silver heavy armor was cracked and peeling. The suit had lost power, which made it all the more difficult for Garrus to move around. The plating was almost completely blackened and burnt on the side that faced the Mako explosion back on Earth.

Tali gave a curt nod and turned slowly back for the elevator. But then she stopped mid stride, and looked down to the ground. "We won Garrus. That's all he ever wanted." With Garrus's lack of reply, Tali sighed and continued for the elevator, leaving Garrus standing among the hanging wires and paneling strewn about the floor of the mess hall.

"Yeah…" Garrus sighed to himself. "The cost was too damn high." He looked up from the speck on the floor that had held his attention for the past few minutes. He straightened up and passed through the mess hall toward the forward battery, each step causing a squeak and groan from the armor he was sporting.

Reaching the powerless door, he pried it open, having to push not only against it, but also the dead weight of his defunct armor. The door came open with a screeching, grinding sound, and Garrus stepped through, looking at a surprisingly clean room beyond. He strolled over to a small retina scanner imbedded in the nearby workbench.

After conducting a deep scan of the Turian's eye, a panel silently slid open on the wall next to the workbench. It was quite spacious inside, able to fit Garrus's alternate desert camo gear as well as a backup Mantis sniper rifle and two Tempest submachine guns. Wedged in the bottom row of the storage space was a fair collection of calibration manuals for various Alliance and Turian weapon systems. But Garrus found what he was looking for, hidden on the top shelf of his locker.

He pulled down the plain, blue C-SEC clothes that he usually wore to sleep. They were the kind one might find in a Citadel Souvenirs shop, yet Garrus forgot where he acquired them originally. Nobody ever saw him out of his armor typically, except for some brief occasions during the previous shore leave. It wasn't as if Garrus was uncomfortable wearing light clothing, but rather he felt the armor gave him more of an authoritative bearing, which he felt was especially needed since he had been the Normandy's de facto executive officer for the past year.

Garrus snickered as he peeled the topmost layer of his armor off. It was a routine that he had adopted at the end of every sleep cycle, but it felt like a much more impactful process than before. This time he was taking his armor off, not knowing if he'd need it anymore, at least not for a while.

He stood there, methodically dismantling every lock and bolt holding the armor to his body, when he began to think of Tali. He liked the quarian, no doubt about it, but he didn't know if their little encounter just before Earth was blowing off steam or genuine. He never really thought of Tali that way before, and it was odd for him to actually be thinking of settling down, after all these years of nonstop action.

As he became lost in thought, Garrus lost touch with his surroundings, and didn't even hear when James walked into the room. James just stood still for a moment, examining the many scars upon the Turian's exposed back. The worst damage, James noticed, was near the shoulder, where Garrus had taken that gunship missile a couple of years ago.

"Can I help you, Lieutenant?" Garrus slowly spun around to face James.

"Damn, Scars. Guess the name fits you even better than I thought." Garrus glared at the large human marine, showing that he was not in the mood to partake in their usual banter. James noticed this real quick before adding, "We need some heavy lifters down in the cargo bay to move the chunks of broken shuttle."

"I'll come down soon." James nodded and continued out of the room faster than he had entered.

Garrus sighed and slipped on his C-SEC shirt over his scarred upper body. Not wanting any more unexpected visitors, he pulled the door closed and manually locked it into place. He removed the lower portion of his armor and placed it beside the upper part on the floor. He'd have to find some time to fix it later. As he pulled his C-SEC sweats on, he removed his final piece: his broken Kuwashii visor. With a heavy heart, he placed his trusty tool down on the workbench, slid open the door, and headed down for the shuttle bay.

* * *

"Admiral on deck!" Specialist Traynor raised her right hand in salute, which was immediately followed by salutes all around the CIC. The whole command deck of the Normandy was in disarray, with pieces of damaged consoles lying upon the floor as technicians tried to fix all of the critical equipment. Wires hung loose from the ceiling, swaying in the fluctuating air currents from the Normandy's impaired yet still functioning life support system.

Hackett returned the salutes. "At ease, please get back to your duties." He motioned for Traynor to walk with him. They crossed the floor of the CIC and headed towards the elevator. "Specialist, I need to speak with Major Alenko."

Traynor punched in the button for deck five and turned to face the Admiral as the doors sealed. "I… uh, sir. I don't think that will be possible for some time." Hackett raised a questioning eyebrow. "You see, he is currently engaged in damage control in the shuttle bay.

The elevator shook slightly, but still traveled slowly downward. "Major Alenko has a ship to command. He needs to be with me in the War Room planning our next move."

"With all due respect, sir, Commander Shepard is still the commanding officer of this vessel." Traynor gulped as soon as the words left her mouth.

Hackett's eyebrows narrowed. "Commander Shepard is out of the picture right now, Specialist. The next ranking officer on this ship is…" The elevator stopped on deck five. "Excuse me."

He strode past the flaming terminals on both sides of him towards the massive cleanup effort at the rear of the shuttle bay. While one shuttle was still safe in her berth, the other shuttle was lying in thousands of pieces scattered throughout the spacious hangar. There was shouting in the distance as the utility crane lost power briefly and dropped the chunk of metal it was carrying.

Ducking under a titanium I-beam, Hackett approached a sweaty, still armor clad Kaiden, who was directing Garrus and James in moving the busted shuttle door to a pile of rubble near the cargo bay doors.

"Major Alenko!" Kaiden looked up at Hackett, who seemed so out of place in all the commotion. He then quickly turned back around, ignoring his superior officer, and returned to directing the two heavy lifters.

"Alenko!" The Admiral shouted. He had no time for this insubordination.

When the shuttle door was placed, Kaiden signaled to Garrus and James to take a five minute break before turning to face Hackett. He gave a half-hearted salute, putting in no real effort to respect the man. "You need something?"

"Yes, I do. You need to put a uniform on and follow me up to the war room."

"Sir, I have a job to do down here. I'm sure Lieutenant Moreau would…"

Hackett narrowed his eyes at Kaiden. "I don't have the patience to do this now, Alenko. The entire fleet is waiting for a plan, and this ship needs to be ready to do some reconnaissance."

"Again, go find Joker. I am working down here."

"Major! You will…"

Kaiden walked right up to the Admiral until he was centimeters from his face. "No, I will not. This is not an Alliance warship, Hackett. This is Spectre John Shepard's ship, and while she is still adrift bleeding, her crew will not be put in harm's way."

"Listen to yourself, Alenko. Shepard would never want the Normandy to sit idly by…"

"Idly by?! Idly by?!" Kaiden stood his ground with Hackett staring him in the eye. "We have injured onboard, including Shepard. We are in dire need of repairs, and we aren't going anywhere until things are under control."

"This fight isn't over!"

"Hell yes it is! Shepard ended it! Right down there on the Crucible! He almost martyred himself to save the galaxy! He did that to save us all! To put an end to the war! Admiral, the fight is most definitely over, and now that it is, I have to help keep the crew and this ship alive." Kaiden turned abruptly and headed over to a chunk of debris and motioned for Garrus and James to help him.

Hackett stood there a moment and watched them all work. Part of him wanted to call in a contingent of marines to seize the Normandy, but he dismissed the idea. He was upset with Alenko for acting the way he just did, but the Major did have some ground here. The Normandy won't be seeing action anytime soon, not with Shepard still in surgery in the medical bay and holes in the ship's hull.

The Admiral pulled up his omnitool and hailed the Everest. "Hackett to Everest. Forward the following message to the admirals of the fleet: Postpone any sort of recon and recovery op for Earth. Fix yourselves up, and crack open a bottle of scotch. Tell your crews that the storm has passed. We won."

And with that, he removed his hat, unbuttoned his jacket, and walked over to the two humans and the Turian and together they picked up the tail of the shuttle and moved it with their combined strengths…

* * *

"Bloody hell! The kinetic barrier's R8-56X re-router is discharging into the forward power circuit…"

"Ken, we can cut the barriers now. We aren't being shot at anymore…" Gabby looked up at the worried engineer and smiled. He looked down at her and returned the grin.

"You're right, Gab. Ha… you're right." The two shared a long, passionate hug as the two let out loud laughs of relief.

Tali smiled under her face mask, and focused her attention back to the drive core's coolant valve. Using her omnitool, she found the leak and pulled out a small welder from her belt. She began the tedious process of fusing the metal piping back together.

As she worked, she began to reflect on all the times she had made repairs on the Normandy after a fight, and the thought that this may be the last time she had to do so crept into her mind. With the new alliance between her people and the Geth, she would probably be needed back on Rannoch to oversee the peace, what with her extensive knowledge of both species. She thought of finally building that house on the lake that her father wanted her to have, but then there would be the matter of filling it. Her prior attempts at flirting with Shepard had been a colossal failure, and she still felt a bit heartbroken when she hears him talk of Miranda.

But then she heard Garrus's chatter over her suit's radio with James, and a whole new series of thoughts rushed into her head. Her "encounter" with Garrus in the gun battery was pure blowing off steam for her, and was a nice substitute to getting drunk before the final battle. But part of her loved him. All those missions during the hunt for Saren where her and Garrus would laugh at Shepard's terrible Mako handling skills, all those crew dinners where the two would playfully fight over the last dextro-protein biscuit, and even the time where the whole squad watched _Fleet and Flotilla _up in Kasumi's little observation deck during the Collector mission. She had grown attached to Garrus throughout the years, but she never thought of him the way she did now.

Running out of fuel for her welding torch, she got up from her spot opposite the room from the still-embracing engineers, and proceeded out into the hallway. She thought she'd try Javik's room to check the crates there for a fuel canister. Walking in, she was shocked at how clean it was. There was still steam rising from the emitters on the floor, and the drapes were all sewn back together. Not a single speck of dust was out of place, yet Javik didn't seem satisfied yet, as he still was using a handheld vacuum to collect the glass on the floor.

"Um… Javik?" Tali giggled at the Prothean struggling to operate the human cleaning device. Upon seeing her, Javik quickly threw the vacuum over the basins of water on the other side of the room.

"Yes, Tali' Zorah?" Javik tried to pretend to be interested in his memory shard, and quickly moved over to adjust it.

"Javik, are you… cleaning?"

Javik looked over his shoulder at the quarian. "Ye… Yes. I was just finishing up this side of the ship."

"Shouldn't you be down in the shuttle bay helping Kaiden, James, and Garrus?"

"If those three and a group of human marines cannot clean up a broken shuttle, then this post-war cleanup will be unsatisfactorily slow."

Tali nodded. "Uh… huh. Well I just came to get some torch fuel…"

Javik pointed to a crate stored in some netting above the doorway. "It's in there." He watched the quarian struggle to reach it, before deciding to use his biotics to lower it to the floor.

"Thanks Javik." Tali rummaged through the supplies until she found the little fuel tank. She stood up and faced Javik kind of awkwardly before heading for the door. She stopped and turned around in the doorway.

"Javik?"

"Tali?"

"Are you happy?"

"What?"

"That… you know. Your people are avenged?"

"Yes."

Tali sighed. She always loathed talking with the Prothean, but still she was curious. "So now that the Reapers are gone, what will you do?"

"Figure out how to work a human cleaning device." Javik gave his odd Prothean grin, which made Tali chuckle. The two stood there a moment longer before Tali moved to leave again.

"Tali, wait. To answer your question? About being happy?" Tali stopped, and hopefully turned around to listen. "In my time as a Prothean warrior, I had never won a battle. The first battle I won was when I went with Shepard to retake the Citadel from the human infidels. I was happy then. Happy for a first victory. Now, after winning a war spanning fifty thousand years? I don't know. Maybe I am elated, but perhaps now I feel the death of my species in an emotion other than anger. Protheans never really shared their inner turmoil with others."

Tali nodded in understanding. "Thank you for that Javik, and for everything you did for us in this war. And, if you want my advice, talk to Liara. Because honestly, if I were you, I'd be pretty lonely." Then, she walked out of the room, leaving Javik standing in the steam and broken glass shards on the floor.

* * *

"Medical Log: 488-1. Patient Commander John Shepard in stable condition after four hours of surgery. Brain activity is at minimal levels, however all physical trauma has been attended to. The patient suffered from a partially collapsed lung, gunshot wounds on the abdomen and the shoulder, ten fractured ribs, and a compound fracture on his right radius. More updates on the patient's status will be sent via vitals data. End log."

Dr. Chakwas stepped away from the console, still clad in her surgical gear. Her hands we covered in Shepard's blood, but that was nothing compared to the floor. There was a large streak of blood running from the door to the operating that Liara was now scrubbing. Liara's VI assistant, Glyph, was making minor adjustments to the life support machine that Shepard was hooked up to.

Liara stood up to get another sponge, but decided check on Shepard's progress again. She stood by the bed and placed a hand to Shepard's forehead. Still looking down at her wounded friend, she spoke to the Doctor. "If it were anybody else…"

"They'd probably be dead." Chakwas nodded solemnly. "I have to say, the enhancements Dr. Lawson installed probably saved his life."

Liara turned around suddenly, a look of anger on her face. "That bitch also installed the damn partial control chip in his cerebrum! Which might very well be the eventual cause for his death."

Chakwas looked at sympathetically. "Liara, we don't know that for sure yet. We won't know until he wakes up."

"I know… I know… I just think we should get an MRI of him. Just to be sure."

"It was busted when the Normandy took all that discharge from the Citadel. It needs to be fixed. The technicians are already on the command deck attending to EDI. Don't you think we should let them help the more critical patient first?"

Liara placed both hands on the bed and leaned forward, looking into Shepard's closed eyes. "I know… Goddess, Jeff must be in complete distress now."

"Has anyone checked up on him?"

"I don't know. I'll go up and see how he is doing. If anything new comes up…"

Chakwas smiled and walked over to Liara, placing an arm on her shoulder. "You'll be the first to know. Don't worry."

Liara was hesitant about leaving John's side, but decided not much more could be done for him now. She removed her blue latex surgical gloves, and walked out the door. Before it slid shut, she looked back at the motionless Commander in the bed. "Hang on Shepard. We can't lose you too."

* * *

Joker slumped against the back of his chair, watching the technicians wave their omnitools all over EDI, desperate for some sort of reading. The female humanoid mech was lying in the middle of the cockpit, motionless and with closed eyes. Her usual orange visor was deactivated, and every scan picked up no sign of any response signal.

His mouth gaping slightly in shock, the Normandy's pilot looked up at Cortez, who was now in Joker's usual seat at the controls. Cortez offered to monitor the Normandy's flight systems while Joker watched over EDI. He was in utter shock and disbelief. How could this happen to EDI? How could this happen to him? As quick as the universe brought him and her together, it just as quickly took her away with no explanation.

He saw Liara moving down the hall from the CIC to the cockpit, but paid her no mind until she began maneuvering around the three technicians positioned around EDI. He watched as she careful stepped around them, and came to sit down next to him.

"Jeff…" Liara looked him in the eye, placing a hand on his shoulder. She could see the man was distressed, which was a first for as long as Liara knew him. Shepard had once said that Joker was the Normandy's coping mechanism, and it took her a year to find out just how important that was.

"She was the only one who called me that." Joker continued to look over at EDI on the floor, trying his hardest to fight back the tears. He failed, and one slid silently down his face.

"I know this must be hard for you. EDI is a valued member of this team, and I'm sure the technicians are doing everything they can."

"Well it's not enough!" Joker shouted, prompting the team working on EDI to look back at him was sad looks on their faces. Liara understood now. They couldn't save her.

"But what about the AI core? Surely there is a backup, or…"

"A backup?! T'soni, if it were Shepard, would you want a backup, or the real thing? Because even the Illusive Man wanted him back the way he was!"

"I… I'm sorry Je… Joker. Everybody is here for you."

"Yeah… I know. Th-thanks." He was starting to stutter on his words now as the tears began as steady flow down his face. There was no sobbing, not yet. "You know, I always felt isolated from the crew, what with being stationed up here all the time. Hell, I only left to eat, piss, or sleep. But Shepard always made a habit of coming up to talk to me twice a day. We had our laughs and all, but I never really thought I'd run out of smart-ass quips. And now… he is clinging to life, which is more than I can say for EDI."

Liara followed his gaze to their ever working omnitools, each one reading zero activity. Each error message made Joker's stomach cringe, as if someone was slicing at his heartstrings. "You need these techs more than she does. Take them. Because of all the people in the goddamn fleet that needs the extra help now, it's Shepard."

Liara placed a hand on Jokers face and turned him to face her. "Jeff, are you sure about this? I mean, maybe have them check the core. You can send a team in now… we are done with surgery…"

Joker began to sob now, letting the full force of tears run down his face and onto his uniform. "Cortez… pull it up," he said in between breaths. Cortez nodded solemnly and pulled up an image of the AI core. The whole room looked like it had just been on fire, with huge holes and scorch marks all over the main computers. Orange electrical discharge danced around the room like a dragon. A huge gaping scratch in the hull made it clear that nobody was going inside without anything less than a breather helmet. Liara could see now that anything stored on those computers was gone, and there was nothing anyone could do.

She looked over at Joker again, now beginning to cry herself. She embraced Joker and the two sobbed together down on the cockpit floor…

* * *

Hackett wiped his sweating forehead with his sleeve. Together, he, Kaiden, James, and Garrus had managed to move the last chunk of the broken shuttle to a large pile near the cargo bay doors. The crane was now picking each piece up and moving them outside through the blue emergency barrier covering the gaping hole in the rear of the shuttle bay. As the crane released each piece, the men watched it as it floated off into the dark void of space.

"Well… that's that." Garrus was slouched by the weapon workbench, sipping on a dextro beer. His C-SEC attire was soaked in sweat, and he decided to peel off the shirt, as did James.

Hackett, who was drenched himself, decided to just take off his jacket, keeping his olive undershirt on. "It'll take more than that to clean up after this whole war… but damn does it feel like an accomplishment."

Kaiden nodded and stood up. "If you would all excuse me, I need to help patch a hole in the port observation deck." Everyone nodded, still slouched in their spots.

"Some people can't enjoy a good beer anymore." James chuckled while sipping on his own.

"Better save some for Shepard, Vega. When he wakes up, he'll be out-drinking us all while he is still in recovery." Garrus smiled, trying his hardest to not appear worried about his friend in the med bay.

"Ha! Loco always was the alcoholic."

Hackett smiled, just as his omnitool buzzer went off. He stood up, grabbed his jacket, and began to walk toward his hat, which was placed on top of a crate on the other side of the hangar. "Hackett here. Sitrep?"

A grizzly male marine's voice growled over on the other side. "We're aboard the Geth flagship, sir."

"Ah, so do you need me to send someone that way to fix their comm units?"

There was silence on the other end for a minute. Then Hackett heard some whispers before the marine spoke again. "Sir, that will not be necessary. All of the Geth onboard are dead."

**A/N So, yeah. I wrote this all at 3AM last night. Hopefully all the grammatical errors are dealt with, but there may be a few more. Anyways, please leave me a review if you can get the chance. It'd be nice to know how I am doing after three chapters of this.**


	4. Lost in Thought

**A/N Sorry for the delay folks. Had a lot non fanfiction related writing to do over the last week. Might have a bit more time in between chapter releases for the next few weeks, but trust me, I am still writing when I can. Anyways, enjoy this nice, short and sweet chapter! **

White for as far as the eyes can see. This way, that way, every way, a white landscape spanned infinitely. There were no sounds, save for his breathing, and there was not a single scent in the air. Here, wherever here was, was nothing, and by extension, he was nothing.

John stood up from the invisible floor upon which he lay, clutching his side where the gunshot wound was. When he could finally bring his head up to look in all directions, he was a bit surprised to find a small structure not too far from his position.

_Gotta contact the Normandy, _he thought. Slowly, step by step, he hobbled toward this distant object, seeing as this was his only option at the moment. After a few meters of limping, John realized he wasn't feeling any pain, and when he looked over at his side, he didn't see the wound anymore, just his exposed skin. Then the realization hit him: he was completely naked!

Not really caring at this point and still so desperately desiring to go sleep in his own bed, John still continued on toward the structure, hoping for it to have communication abilities. As he traveled, he noticed there was no sound of his footsteps on the invisible floor, and then his mind began to analyze the phenomenon. _What if I am not walking on anything? _He contemplated this for a moment, and then decided to put things to the test.

John took a deep breath and jumped into the air. He waited a split second before realizing that he wasn't coming back down and then looked around. It was obvious from what he saw that he was still traveling upward, yet he felt no wind resistance, no feeling of motion or acceleration at all. Then he noticed that he was flying high past the structure and continuing to gain altitude. Now struggling in the absence of gravity, John felt his breathing begin to shorten, now making the connection that he was leaving whatever atmosphere he was in. Flashing back to the horror of floating through space while suffocating above Alchera, John closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

But then, a warm hand grabbed his. "Now, now Shepard. Floating without direction… problematic." John's eyes shot open, hearing the unmistakable voice of his long lost friend. He was shocked to realize that he was no longer floating, but rather he was now seated at a bar stool in Purgatory, now clothed in his N7 leather jacket. He quickly scanned the room, looking behind him to see if he could spot Mordin. But the room was empty, and as John turned around, his heart nearly jumped out of his throat.

"Commander Shepard." The bartender set his cigarette down in the ashtray. Gone were the Illusive Man's cybernetic eyes, replaced by a pair of dreary brown orbs, those that had seen too much distress in a lifetime. Still sporting his usual suit, unbuttoned at the top, he reached for a bottle of scotch before pouring a pair of drinks.

"Illusive Man?" John was stunned for a moment, but then he remembered. Countless talks with Ashley onboard the SR-1 came flashing back to him, and then he realized where he was. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

The Illusive Man smiled before sliding a drink over to Shepard. He took a sip out of his own before he answered. "First of all, that man is dead. Call me Jack. Jack Harper." He let that sink into John's disbelieving mind before continuing. "And no, you aren't technically dead, yet. I always thought the name of this bar was quite relevant…"

John took a sip out of his drink, before spitting it back out. The drink was vile, and it almost tasted of blood. He looked into the cup and saw a reflection of the Normandy's med bay, with Dr. Chakwas working at her desk across the room and Liara refilling an IV bag.

"Ah, look. It seems as if the surgery was a success." Harper smiled and continued to drink.

"But wait… if Chakwas patched me up, why am I here?"

"I believe that is my fault."

"Oh?"

"Miranda must have told you about her wanting a control chip implanted in your head, no?"

"She mentioned that a few times. Said you stopped her."

Harper walked around the bar and pulled up a chair next to John. John could make out that it was the exact same chair the Illusive Man had in his office on Cronos Station. "True, to some extent. We had both agreed to begin installation of it about a year into the Lazarus Project. When Miranda had the basic neural link set up between your mind and the chip, I stopped her."

John set his glass down and spun on his stool to face Harper. "But why? What made you change your mind?"

He was silent for a moment. "I came to visit the Lazarus Station once. It was the first time I had left Cronos Station since the founding of Cerberus. I walked into the lab where Miranda was working on you. She was in the middle some neurological surgery with Wilson, and I saw you lying on that table. But at the same time, I saw your father."

"You knew my father?" John leaned back against the bar, intent on listening.

"No. Not really. But I had seen him on Shanxi, during the First Contact War. Captain Leo Shepard. He was the commanding officer of an Alliance frigate evacuating the top citizens from the colony. Scientists, politicians, businessmen. And just as the last evacuee was boarding, and the final preparations to leave were in place, I saw him leading a dozen or so small orphan children onto the ship. He had given them the last spot onboard. His spot. Now, he could have most likely hopped onboard, but he didn't, and as he walked away from the departing ship, he came over to where my team and I had set up. He picked up a rifle, and said this in passing: 'Never just go with the current. You always have a choice.'"

John was silent, staring off now at the lights on the ceiling. He had never heard this story about his father, and he wasn't sure what to think. Then he remembered. "You said that to me just before I left for Freedom's Progress."

Harper nodded. "And when I saw Miranda adding the final parts to the control chip, I stopped her. I had to risk everything to bring you back on faith alone. But it's what you father would have wanted. And it's what you would have wanted too."

"I don't know what to say Illu… Jack. I guess… thanks. For everything. For bringing me back. For the Normandy. For all the help."

Harper smiled and held his hand up. "The Illusive Man did some bad things in his last year of life. You need not thank him."

"So what happens now?"

"We wait until Purgatory closes, and we are sent elsewhere."

The two shared a few moments of silence, watching a virtual fire burn on the screens making up the circumference of Purgatory. The screens then flashed to show something more familiar. Reapers. But these weren't firing red beams at ships in Earth orbit. There were no Citadel arms extending into the distance, no debris floating past the viewport… and no orange sunrise over Europe just yet.

**So I am planning on a few more of these quick chapters spread throughout the main plot. Don't worry; the next chapter will get back to Earth. As always, please review if you can spare the time. It goes a long way into making me roll these chapters out faster. **


	5. Those Who Rise

**A/N As promised, here is another Earth chapter. Shorter than usual, but enjoy Wrex!**

"Hang on back there. This one will definitely get us off the ground!" The entire truck leapt and shook as it passed over a wall of sooty rubble. Although Krogan vehicles were designed to operate in extreme conditions, the last several minutes of traveling down Oxford Street was rougher than flying into a brown dwarf. At least, that was Miranda's opinion.

"Honestly, Wrex. Who in the bloody hell taught you how to drive?!" Miranda had both her hands clamped onto the handlebars on each side of her. Rides like this usually didn't bother her, but after thirty six hours of no sleep, she would rather rest her eyes than slam her head into the ceiling every few seconds.

"Shepard Driving School 101, princess." Wrex gave a toothy grin from the driver's seat, still focusing on the road, if it was even to be called that now. "Be happy you never had to drop in a Mako with him at the wheel."

Miranda sighed and adjusted her legs to a position with more room, due to the fact that the hulk of a Krogan, Grunt, was sitting opposite her. Seeing the human woman struggle, Grunt shifted his legs off to the side so she could sit normally. "Reminds me of the Hammerhead days, eh Lawson?" Grunt tried to make conversation, seeing as the only noise for the last hour was the shaking frame of the truck and the occasional curse from Wrex.

"The thing floated off the ground, Grunt. There was hardly any… damnit Wrex!.. shaking…" Miranda gave up and just let the truck bounce away and carry her head into the metal frame adding to her already splitting headache.

Grunt smiled and looked over at the tattooed woman next to him. "You should have joined us on that volcano mission, Jack. Things got heated pretty quick… heh… Heated." Grunt began to let out a lighthearted chuckle, and Miranda simply shook her head at the terrible pun.

Jack didn't even look up. "Shut the fuck up, Grunt."

Grunt silenced himself immediately and looked away from her. He instead focused on the view out the windshield, noting that the rain had stopped and the smoke was clearing up, at least close to the ground. The landscape looked eerily identical, with each block looking just like the last- a blacked wasteland of fire and debris.

"Almost at the FOB, kiddos. Put your shoes on." Wrex gave an over exaggerated laugh as the truck came to a complete stop next to a collection of field tents and parked Makos. As he powered down the truck, the three in back piled out the side door and onto the muddy asphalt. The air was thick with a water vapor and ash mixture, and dark condensation began to form on them after only a few seconds outside.

Jack stormed off as soon as she touched the ground, and Grunt walked over to the Krogan tent to find something to eat. Standing alone, Miranda exhaled with exhaustion and scratched at the defunct sentry interface, its warped metal snagging at her long locks of raven black hair. A tall, soft-faced Alliance officer approached her. "Doctor Lawson?" She nodded. "This way, mam. Officers' quarters are over here."

Miranda followed the officer through the camp. Prefabricated tents lined the streets, placed in areas where the previous structure was completely blown away. Those buildings that did remain, however, were currently being reinforced to allow for safe occupation. She noticed a small group of biotic students; Jack's possibly, helping to lift an archway back into place for a church. _Odd a church is one of the only standing structures after this,_ she thought.

The two passed a group of Turian and Krogan soldiers, both enjoying a feast of MREs while sharing war stories. There was almost no division among the troops as they congregated around a parked Turian fighter. Miranda couldn't help but smile, seeing that these once sworn enemies now laughing and enjoying each other's company. As she rounded the corner, she snapped a picture of the scene on her omnitool- Shepard would enjoy it when they met up… if they met up.

The officer gestured toward a drab, brown, fabric tent at the base of a large corporate tower. "This one is for you, mam. There will be a briefing at HQ at the base of Big Ben in 0600 hours. You can't miss it. Only metal prefab shelter in the street near the clocktower." Miranda nodded and the officer headed back toward the main road to direct more of the incoming soldiers still trickling in from the outskirts of the city.

She stepped inside to find the tent deserted. It was about the size of a small bedroom, with two cots at the far end, a footlocker at the base of the each, and a small mirror attached to one of the support beams to her right. She figured she'd have to share the tent with someone else. Oddly enough, Miranda felt at home. Living on the run during the war had made her grow accustomed to simple accommodations, and that cot looked very comfortable right about now…

She began to remove her armor, piece by piece starting with the broken sentry interface on her head. It had been sliced in half by a piece of shrapnel earlier in the day when she had been fighting with Zaeed's squad near Westminster Abbey. The shrapnel also carved a deep gauge on her forehead, which had since stopped bleeding and scabbed over. It was an ugly mark upon her usual beauty.

She then removed her chest piece, the locks squeaking in resistance as she peeled it from her body. As soon as it was free, the piece fell to the floor with a loud bang, Miranda lacking the strength to hold it for more than a few seconds. Underneath her chest piece was a thin black body suit, much less durable than her old catsuit. She did an inspection and found no serious tears in the fabric, indicating that the armor had done its job well.

As she was struggling to disconnect the fasteners on her leg pieces, there was slight rustling as the fabric doors to the tent were spread open. The woman stood there, clad in an Alliance working uniform, rather dirty from head to toe. It didn't seem like she had been on the front lines, Miranda inferred, however judging by the look in her eyes it was apparent that the woman had seen too many people die that day.

"Guess you are rooming with me for the time being," the woman smiled as she walked in the tent. She helped Miranda pull off one of her armored boots before extending a hand. "Kahlee Sanders."

Miranda shook the hand hesitantly, looking up at Kahlee from the cot. "Miranda Lawson… And before you say anything about Cerb…"

Sanders cut her off. "Those days are over for you. No need to explain yourself to me." She smiled at Miranda, and got one in return. Miranda really did give a genuine smile; it was nice to be around an Alliance officer who didn't give her an odd look for either being the former second-in-command for Cerberus or for having a stellar ass.

As Miranda removed the other armored boot, Sanders walked over to the mirror and tried to brush the small chunks of rubble out of her hair. "Thank God this war is finally over," she whispered.

"Mhm. Shepard really came through for us."

Sanders smiled. "I just hope him and Anderson are alright. They've been up on the Citadel for almost half a day now."

Miranda then remembered about Sanders' relationship with the Admiral, and how both of them planned on settling down after the war was over. "I'm sure Anderson is alright. He's one of humanity's best."

"So is Commander Shepard." Kahlee smiled as she turned around from the mirror to face Miranda, who was now working on getting the gauntlets off.

"Yeah… You're right. I… just don't know. Knowing him, he'd be back by now… I fear the worst."

"Don't give up hope just yet. I bet David and John are searching for survivors on the Citadel or something like that right now. It'd take a lot more than the Reapers to take those two down, especially if they are fighting side by side.

Miranda smiled again as she removed the last piece of armor. She rolled in the cot to rest her head on the pillow. "Maybe…" She stared on the top of the tent, allowing exhaustion to take over and drop her into the deepest sleep of her life.

It felt like mere minutes since her head touched the pillow, but she enough, her omnitool's alarm was sounding off to wake her up in time for the briefing. She rubbed her eyes before sitting up on the cot. Sanders had already left for HQ, leaving Miranda alone in the tent.

She touched the cold, concrete floor with bare feet, a sensation that caused her to shiver, even with her thermal body suit still on. After doing a few routine stretches, she walked over to the footlocker at the end of her bed and pulled out an Alliance battledress uniform, much like the one Shepard had worn when he had come to visit her all those times on the Citadel.

She set the new found clothes on the cot and began to remove the black body suit. It was comfortable material, but it reminded Miranda too much of being constricted by armor, a feeling that turned her off now that war was concluded. She undid the small zipper to her side and let the black suit fall to the floor. Looking up at the mirror, she realized she was still clad in red lace lingerie, a choice she had made in preparation for meeting up with Shepard at the end of the day to "celebrate" the end of the war. She felt ridiculous wearing something like it in a warzone, so she quickly changed into an Alliance sports bra and shorts.

Once she had placed the Alliance uniform over her underwear, she tied the accompanying black boots onto each foot. Confident that her outfit was presentable, she ran her hands through her mangled hairdo to at least get the knots out. Now ready to face the other leaders of the ground effort, Miranda stepped through the fabric doors of the tent and out onto the sidewalk, nearly walking straight into a Salarian.

"Oh, sorry, miss." The green Salarian stopped just in time to avoid her.

"Oh, no. My fault. Do you know how to get to Big Ben from here?"

"Yes, I'm on my way there right now. Follow me."

Miranda looked over at the Salarian as they walked. "Any updates on Shepard?"

"He held the line. That much is for certain."

Urdnot Wrex slammed his fist into the table, causing it to dent in the shape of an angry Krogan fist. "If you're people can't fix it, then find a Salarian. Those lizards are always good at fixing things, whether it be a damn communicator or an entire species.

"Fine, calm down. I'll get one of Kirrahe's men to work on it." Major Coats tapped the orders into his datapad.

The two were positioned on opposite ends of steel table in the temporary command center for Hammer. Members of all species were working frantically at their consoles around the room, desperately using whatever forms of communication that were still working to bring news to the two men in charge.

It was now that officers began to start trickling one by one into the small room. A quiet murmur was permeating the room, and the only words Wrex could make out were: "Shepard" and "Citadel." Wrex currently held no facts about what transpired in Earth's orbit, but that wasn't his concern right now. Being the highest ranking member of Hammer, Wrex had to make sure those under his command were taken care of, a trait he had picked up from Shepard.

He then noticed Shepard's girl, Miranda, walk into the room accompanied by Major Kirahe. Wrex nodded at Miranda, which she returned, and motioned for Kirrahe to join him and Coats up at the table. "Any developments since our last meeting?"

"No. Global communications are still down, and nobody can seem to get any transmissions from the Citadel," Coats explained.

"Bah, save it for the briefing. No need to repeat ourselves," Wrex snorted. He crossed his arms and watched the last officers enter the room. He noticed a male Quarian come in from the side door, and gestured for him, too, to join them at the table.

"Kal-Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines." The quarian shook hands with Kirrahe and Coats. Wrex and Reegar had already met earlier in the day while both their teams were fighting off Harvesters near the London Eye. It was a fierce battle, even for Wrex, but somehow, the combined Krogan-Quarian forces were able to take the majority of them down.

When the last officer had entered the room, a Turian, Wrex beat the table with his fist, much lighter this time to avoid denting, to get everybody's attention. "Alright. Here's what we know, and here's what we are going to do. Communications are still down, so we will have to get those geeky liz… Salarians to work with the Quarians to fix our network. We still don't know if there anymore husks squirming in the dirt, so Turians, you lot and us Krogan are going out on an extermination run."

Several of the Turians and Krogan grinned and patted each other on the backs. "We also need to get our wounded out of those shitty tents, so the Ra…" Wrex forced himself to say it. "Rachni will be on repair duty. And keep in mind, both of your erm… species need to work pretty fast before the storms hit again. Or else we will all be drowning in muck."

A Rachni officer, clad in an actual uniform comprised of a black and white urban camo, gave a chirping noise in response.

Wrex looked over at Miranda before speaking again. "The humans and Asari will be focused on looking after the wounded. Round 'em up in tents first and hope we have some more permanent structures to use soon." Miranda caught a sideways glance from Coats before noticing Sanders was in the crowd a few meters in front of her.

After a split second of silence, someone over in the Asari group spoke up. "What about Shepard?" The room grew loud again with shouts from all the gathered officers. What happened on the Citadel? Why did the Reapers just drop dead? Did anyone survive the charge on the beam?

Wrex tried to shout above the noise, but nobody was paying him any attention now. "And why are you in charge?" A Salarian officer practically yelled out the question, prompting more shouting and great chaos. Miranda leaned back against the wall, annoyed with how little was being accomplished here. Sanders just pinched her brow, joining Miranda.

"The lot of you, just shut your damn blabbers!" The voice came out of no-where. Nobody had noticed the small group of people walk into the room from the side-door. The group looked like they had gone to hell and back, but all of them held fierce looks, as if they were ready for more. It took a very observant eye to even see their C-Sec logos on their shoulder pads.

The group strolled into the room, resting their beaten Avenger rifles along the metal walls of the prefab. Most limped up to Wrex at the table, with an older looking human with a buzzcut leaned forward on the table to catch his breath. Miranda stepped forward in the crowd to see better. "Bailey?"

The man smiled. "Citadel or no, it's still Commander Bailey."

Coats immediately spoke. "Tell us, Commander. What happened up there?"

All eyes were on Bailey as he straightened up, struggling against his own weight. It was obvious that his wounds from the Cerberus coup hadn't healed, and it was also clear he had severely injured his back. With one hand on the table, he spoke in his rusty tone. "The Reapers had taken the Citadel from us quicker than it takes a Krogan to gulp down a cheeseburger. We didn't even know the Citadel had been moved to Earth until the battle in orbit had already started."

Sanders and several Asari commandos came rushing up with first aid kits. The commandos attended to the Turian officers while Sanders began to wrap bandages on Bailey's arm. The C-Sec Commander continued. "We tried to radio for help but someone in C-Sec had already been brainwashed or indoctrinated or whatever by the damned squid monsters. They set up a jammer in the Council Chambers, and only a few minutes after we had destroyed it, there was this huge, red wave that surged through the whole station. Mind you, it left some pretty bad burns on our people, but we had readings of temperatures over one thousand Celsius at that Crucible junction."

Wrex shot Miranda a sideways look, trying to reassure her that everything was fine. The Krogan Battlemaster then spoke up with a fake smile. "We have been trying to raise Shepard and Anderson for almost a day now. I assume your people have him by now?"

Bailey immediately looked down to the floor. "Shepard? I… I didn't know…"

Miranda tried her hardest to keep a straight, professional face when she asked Bailey the next question. "Where is he?"

"On our way to that beam, portal, whatever, inside the Citadel… we found some sort of control room."

Now, there was no sound at all. Not even the sound of breathing. Everybody was holding their breaths for what Bailey was about to say. He inhaled deeply and continued. "There were two bodies. Both burned beyond recognition. One had a severely disfigured admiral's star on his person, the other had massive cybernetic work done on his whole body." Bailey looked up at Miranda. "I'm so sorry, kid."

There was huge uproar in the room, with shouts of agony from everyone assembled. Even the Rachni emitted sorrowful whistles. Miranda's heart hit the floor. She didn't know what to do. Her whole world crashed down around her, literally. Wrex had hefted the metal table now and threw it out the nearest open window before letting out the loudest roar of anger ever heard on the surface of the Earth. Miranda desperately searched for something calm to anchor herself too. Her eyes settled on Sanders, who was still calmly patching Bailey up… without a single tear rolling down her face.

**A/N Planning on some happier chapters later on. Trying to incorporate as many characters from the series as I can, but they will all come in future chapters.**

**Nothing more to share about the story right now, but if I could estimate, I'd say there are still at least twenty chapters I plan on writing. As always, give me a review if possible.**


	6. The Best Friends

**A/N First, I really need to apologize for taking an unexpected month off. I have been busy with paperwork preparing for college in the Fall. (Going to be a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech!) So… all I can say is that I am sorry. I had other priorities this last month.**

**Back to story stuff, I don't really know how many more chapters there will be. Hang on now, there will still be plenty, plenty more. But now I am deciding whether or not I do another story or incorporate it into this one. It's still up in the air, but please rest assured that I am still working on this story whenever can. **

_At least I can hear some humming. _It was true, the Normandy's drive core was now functional again, and the familiar warped humming sound was audible all throughout the ship. His soft, shoeless feet caused small echoes, however, in the otherwise quiet main corridor of the crew deck. As much as Turians hated showers, Garrus decided to clean himself off after a full day of wiping down the main hydraulics down in engineering with Tali. Not like he was complaining at all, it gave him some alone time with his favorite Quarian…

On his way from the men's bathroom to his forward battery, he passed the memorial wall. There were no new additions to the wall as of yet, mainly because the crew was waiting for Shepard to pull through and wake up out of his coma, but alas there had been no new updates on Shepard's vitals since the preliminary trauma surgery almost thirty-six hours ago. Garrus stopped to pay his usual respects to his fallen friends; Mordin, Thane, Legion, Ashley.

Continuing on, he entered a now clean mess hall. He missed walking in here early in the morning on the Collector mission and smelling Gardner cooking up some sort of fatty meat humans called bacon. Nevertheless, Garrus knew why Shepard was in love with it when Gardner was able to serve a dextro version of bacon. Garrus smiled a genuine Turian smile; he missed those days when everything was simple, from a galaxy-saving standpoint that is.

Before he traveled down the corridor to the main battery, he gazed in the window at Shepard lying in the bed, hooked up to various pieces of medical equipment. James was asleep in a chair next to the bed, holding what looked like a paper-back book in his hands. The crew had decided to have one person constantly on watch to assist Chakwas if needed. Noticing Chakwas was absent, either sleeping in the crew quarters or at the bar, Garrus decided to go into the med bay to check on his friend.

The door to the med bay hissed open, but did not wake James, who was now snoring with his head propped against the wall. Garrus silently walked over to where Shepard was laying. He looked up at the monitor that displayed neural functions. It read that there had been no brain activity since he was hooked up, not even a single dream…

Garrus looked down at his injured friend. It only took a few doses of medigel and some stiches to heal Shepard's exterior wounds, but Chakwas and Liara planned to conduct and MRI scan of Shepard's head and abdomen later that day to be sure everything was accounted for. Garrus had suspicions that there were complications with the Cerberus implants, after overhearing conversations between Liara and Kaiden. Garrus was never about all the medical stuff. To him, someone was healthy, dead, sick, or wounded. Not much more mattered to him.

Right now, however, he wasn't sure if Shepard was sick or wounded. He placed one of his talons on Shepard's wrist to check his pulse, as he never trusted medical equipment anyway. After observing that Shepard had a normal heart rate for a human, Garrus took a step back and looked his friend over. "Come on, Shepard. If I can take a missile to the face, you sure as hell can take a gunshot to the shoulder."

James snickered across the room and Garrus looked straight up at him. Garrus returned the laugh. "Yeah, laugh it up James. The guy who fell asleep while watching over his wounded superior."

"Not my fault this book is so damn dry."

"What could someone like you possibly read for entertainment?"

"Lord of the Flies. Apparently it's a classic."

"And you have it… why?"

"Not mine. Kasumi gave it to Loco as a going away present."

"Knowing Kasumi, it's probably a very old, very valuable copy."

James smiled. "I heard it belonged to some president or someone."

Garrus just shook his head and turned to leave the med bay. James called out, "Don't worry, Scars. Loco here won't want to miss the after party at his apartment, even if he is half-dead."

Garrus stopped in the doorway. "We're all half-dead at those things."

As the door closed, Garrus heard a loud laugh from James. He carried on down the corridor to the forward battery, his bare feet clanging on the metal grating. Once he reached the door, he had to wait a few seconds before it unlocked. He missed the old days where there was no wait time to open doors on their own goddamn ship…

Upon opening the door, Garrus was shocked to see his old "room" now cluttered with pieces of the Normandy's tech, ranging from air filters to power couplings, scattered on his workbench and the floor. And hanging from one end to another was an unusually large hammock, made from old canvas, complete with one Quarian lying in the middle.

"Tali? What is this?"

Tali stopped flicking through pages on her datapad and looked up at Garrus.

"Oh? I just thought we should take our relationship to the next level." Tali's body language indicated to Garrus that she was smirking under that helmet.

While Garrus was tip toeing through the room careful not to step on something important, he replied, "Well, nothing homier than a gun battery on a warship."

Tali chuckled. "Ok, fine. Ken and Gabby are practically a married couple and at night I would rather listen to the air scrubbers on the Migrant Fleet than here those two go at it."

Garrus smiled as he practically played hop scotch around a broken display unit that was taken out of the CIC. "You raise a good point, but these are sort of cluttered quarters… You sure Liara couldn't have spared some room? Or Javik?"

Both of them just stared at each other at the Javik comment and began to crack up laughing. After a minute of laughing, Garrus finally maneuvered his way next to the hammock. Tali looked up at him. "Besides, I know you keep the dextro-booze locked up in here somewhere."

Garrus gestured over to his personal locker. "If you can crack the code, you are guaranteed a job at C-Sec. And I hope you don't intend to make me sleep on the floor. I have issues lying flat on my back."

Tali moved over to allow Garrus to lie down next to her. "Well then… I have one condition."

Garrus adjusted the hammock and sat down, looking around at Tali. "And what might that be?"

Tali reached up and undid the fasteners on her face mask, letting it fall into her lap. "We give Ken and Gabby a run for their money."

"Attention, Normandy Crew. Briefing in the Mess Hall in 10 minutes." The intercom echoed loudly throughout the ship. Liara's voice sounded much terser these past few days, and Tali attributed it to something to do with Shepard.

Tali moaned from the other side of the hammock, kicking off the blanket her and Garrus shared the night before. She was now sporting her facemask again after only a few hours of "fun" the night before with Garrus. "What's a Quarian got to do to get some sleep on this damn ship?"

Garrus was still snoozing, his arm wrapped around Tali. Tali placed her hand on Garrus's forehead and slid it down over his face. "You better wake up, mister, or you'll have to deal with an alarm clock from now on."

Garrus kept his eyes closed. "I'll be out in a minute. Go ahead."

Tali swung her legs around Garrus and climbed over him to get out of the hammock, meriting a groan from the Turian in response. She just barely missed stepping on her datapad that she must have dropped the night before. Careful not to squash any of the equipment around her, she proceeded out the door toward the mess hall.

She noticed that Javik was already in the kitchen, preparing some exotic Prothean tea. Tali had to admit, as bloodthirsty as Javik was, he was still a sweetheart when it came to domestic chores. She smiled at him, which Javik returned, going back to his kettle and spices.

The young Quarian took her seat at the large dining table between the elevator and the kitchen. She thought it funny how she had never sat at this table before. She'd either eat in engineering or at the smaller table located in the kitchen. Perhaps what drew her to this table was the projection of a human nervous system floating in the center. Liara was hard at work setting up the animations when the others began to float in.

First it was Specialist Traynor, who was always early for briefings, then came Kaiden, who was still clad in his sleeping attire: a white Alliance shirt and boxers. Cortez and James came in next, both arguing about whether to replace the broken shuttle with a Hammerhead tank or not. Dr. Chakwas and the rest of the crew, including Ken and Gabby, followed shortly thereafter. All were present except for Joker, who kept to himself up in the cockpit for the last two days. Nevertheless, Liara provided a video uplink for him, and his droopy, saddened face appeared on the monitor opposite Tali.

Finally, Garrus came into the room, clad in his full desert camo armor. He received a bunch of odd looks from the rest of the crew, but he subtly took his seat next to Tali. Tali gave him a questioning look, but said nothing. Only after Javik had come into the dining area with his morning tea did Liara speak.

"As you all know, Commander Shepard's condition is not improving, and now Dr. Chakwas and I have figured out why." She zoomed in on the brain on the holographic nervous system, which was obviously the Commander's. "After a quick MRI scan of Joh… Commander Shepard's body, we found that a control chip, plugged into his nervous system, is keeping him in a state of suspended animation. He is neither conscious, nor is he brain dead."

The crew's gaze was unwavering. They knew now was not the time to be nervous, or scared for that matter. Their leader, their friend was in trouble, and they were all committed to doing whatever they can to help him. Kaiden spoke up first. "You said something about a control chip? I need a better explanation than that."

Liara narrowed her eyes. "I was just getting to that, Alenko. We believe that when Cerberus resurrected Shepard, they had planned to install a control chip in Shepard's cerebrum to control him had he ever disobeyed orders. For reasons we cannot explain, the chip was never completed. Only the interface with his nervous system is still intact. Obviously, it was very risky for them to remove, but they installed it nonetheless."

Specialist Traynor raised her head, and got a few raised eyebrows from Garrus and James. She slowly, awkwardly lowered it before speaking. "I'm assuming that if Cerberus could not remove it, then we cannot either."

Liara nodded. "Correct. However, if we had the right doctor, the right equipment, then perhaps we could safely remove it."

Garrus shook his head. "Cerberus had the best equipment money could buy. If they can't do it, there is no way we can find a facility that's left standing anymore that can do it."

"Again. Correct Garrus. However, when this chip was being installed, Shepard was already alive, so to speak There was a risk of severing active neural links in his head."

There was silence in the room at first. Everybody was trying to think of their own plans, all except Joker. He looked up into the monitor. "So you're saying we kill him to save him?"

Everybody shot their gaze back to Liara. "Yes, Jeff. That's exactly what I'm saying."

Then the uproar came, from all sides. James slammed his fist on the table, followed by Tali standing up screaming at Liara. Kaiden began to yell, "No way!" over and over again. The crew was shouting all kinds of profanity at Liara. The only two who remained calm were Javik, who was sipping on his tea, and Garrus who had his hands folded on the table.

After about five minutes of chaos, Garrus stood up and cocked his Paladin sidearm. Everybody fell silent at the noise. Garrus held the pistol at his side and took a spot next to Liara. "This is how it is people. If Liara says we have to do this, then we have to do this."

Tali stood up to face them. "But Garrus!"

"Tali, Kaiden. We've worked together over the past several years. When, out of all those times, was Liara wrong?" Garrus still held the pistol at his side. He wasn't playing now.

Kaiden sighed and leaned up against the table. "He's right Tali. If Liara and Dr. Chakwas say they can save Shepard, then they will."

Now Dr. Chakwas stepped forward. "Oh no. We aren't saving him." Everybody, except Liara, looked at her. "The person who installed the chip is going to remove it. Miranda Lawson will be saving John Shepard."

"Admiral Hackett. Incoming transmission for the Normandy XO."

The Admiral walked up to the holotank on the bridge, now clad in a Navy working uniform instead of his usual officer's dress uniform. An image of Liara appeared in the center, much to Hackett's surprise. "Dr. T'soni. I was aware that Lt. Alenko was the Executive Officer of the Normandy."

"Oh? And I was aware Garrus Vakarian was. Guess we are both mistaken." Liara's tone was till terse, and Hackett picked up on it. Still, he was going to hear the Asari out.

"I assume you have a plan for Shepard now?"

She crossed her arms. "I do."

"How many ships do you need?"

"As many as you are willing to give."

Hackett calmly rested his arms on the holotank's sides. "That's a tall order. We are still repairing our hulls. We would stand no chance in a fire fight with the Reapers."

"Good thing you won't have to worry about them."

"Why's that?"

"Because the same force that shut Commander Shepard down also shut the Reapers down. Which also shut the geth down."

The crew of the Everest's bridge looked to Hackett, who was still contemplating. "You'll have the Second Fleet. That's it. Any sign of danger and their orders are to retreat."

"Fair enough."

"What's this plan of yours?"

"We don't have the medical facilities here on the Normandy for a neural operation. We require a more equipped hospital."

Hackett sighed. "Good look finding one on Earth."

Liara smirked. "Who said anything about Earth?" The transmission then dropped.

"Enough of the tricks, Vakarian. Time to make a real man's move." James was not in the mood to mess around, especially here in front of all of his comrades.

"You've said enough, Vega. Now it's time to put your money where your mouth is." Garrus narrowed his eyes, reaching for the bottle of dextro-beer at his side. Tali just sat there staring, she didn't want to witness Garrus lose it all. Even Kaiden sat a bit farther back in his seat.

James smiled and calmly placed a credit chip on the table. "I raise you one hundred." He confidently put his arms behind his head and waited for Garrus's response.

"I'll match, and raise five hundred." Garrus slid an entire stack of chips into the pot. Over the past few days, the crew held a few poker matches on the observation deck to keep their minds off what was going on in the med bay. Liara and Chakwas had almost locked themselves in after the MRI confirmed the control chip's presence. While they were investing all of their energy into Shepard, the crew had nothing to do but repair the Normandy, and after a few days of everybody working hard, the ship was almost completely ready for action again. The only thing left was a few hull repairs that could only be done in port.

"Feeling risky, Vakarian? That must be a mean hand you've got there." James matched Garrus with a huge smile on his face. Around the table were Kaiden, Garrus, James, and Cortez. Tali, Traynor, and Javik were positioned on the couches, watching the match heat up.

Javik leaned over to Specialist Traynor and whispered, "I still don't follow this game. Why would a card with the value of one defeat a King?"

Traynor giggled and looked over at Javik. She was a bit tipsy from sharing a few drinks with Tali. The two girls couldn't cope with the stress of Shepard close to death without the help of alcohol. "Javiiiik…. Seriously, it's not the complicated, bro."

Javik looked at her questioningly. "Bro?"

The game continued on for several more minutes in silence before Kaiden spoke up. "You know, its times like these that I wonder how life would be if none of this had happened."

Garrus placed his cards down on the table and responded. "You'd be a bit richer, Alenko."

Kaiden laughed and shook his head. "No not the card game. This whole Reaper conflict… and I'm not trying to be a philosopher here. It's just… I'd probably be somewhere stationed with Alliance on some prototype warship, just making random FTL jumps around Sol to test out stealth systems."

James set his cards down now, too. "Nah, Major. You'd probably be the host of some damned talk show." He let out a hearty laugh and chugged the rest of his beer.

Traynor now spoke up. "Oh! A game! I like games! Ok... so I'll go now. I wouldth probs be on a *hiccup*… beautiful college campus, on full tuition scholarship from the Alliance…" She couldn't help but giggle, which made Garrus cringe a bit. Here was this intelligent girl, brought down to such a low by a war she never signed up to be a part of. Although she didn't fight, the trauma of seeing so much death and despair would surely mentally and emotionally cripple anyone her age… besides a Krogan.

Cortez smiled over at her, and couldn't help but laughing with her. Once he had calmed down, he decided it was his turn to speak. "I'd probably be on some backwater colony, far from civilization, with my husband. We'd run a small farm, and perhaps repair small shuttles on the side." Mentioning his husband never bothered Cortez anymore. Shepard had helped him move on. "What about you Garrus? Think you'd settle down?"

Garrus exchanged a look with Tali, Tali cocking her head to the side curiously. "Well… I mean, hell. I know if it weren't for the mission to bring down Saren, I would have never gotten off the Citadel. Once I saw the galaxy, once Shepard showed me there was more to solving problems rather than arresting or killing, I changed… Shut up James!"

James was rolled over on the bench laughing hysterically. Garrus decided to join the laughing, too. James finally sat up straight and tried to hold a straight face. "Scars, I never would have thought you'd be so, and I'll take the words from you, Kaiden, philosophical."

Garrus just rolled his eyes. "Can't help it. If you could crawl your way out from under all that muscle, you might be able to see what the galaxy looks like."

James fell out of his seat to the floor he was laughing so hard. It was obvious that he was drunk, and everybody else in the room joined in the laughter. It was a nice break from all of the dreariness out in the rest of the ship. These poker matches were one of the few times the crew could sit down together and let loose.

When the laughter began to quiet down, Tali stood up. "If it weren't for Shepard, I'd probably be dead. He saved me from Saren's assassins and…"

"Tali," Garrus interrupted. "If it weren't for Saren and the Reapers, those assassins would never have come after you."

"Pshh sorry, the drinks are affecting my memory. Let's see… then if weren't for Saren, and the geth, I'd probably be living a boring life on the Migrant Fleet… maybe teaching children how to survive on the pilgrimage or how to crack Collector security systems or something."

Javik leaned forward. "But if the Reapers did not exist, you would all still be subjects of the Prothean Empire. And we would have crafted a glorious civilization."

Kaiden replied. "Yet if the Reapers didn't annihilate every civilization before the Protheans, we might be living in a galaxy controlled by multiple species, much like it is today."

"No, the Protheans would have taken over."

"Why's that?"

"Because we are Protheans."

There was an awkward silence in the room before the doors hissed open and an angry Liara entered. "What the hell is going on in here? We are jumping to Earth in an hour. Be at your stations. We don't have any idea of what we may find back at Earth." And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out.

Garrus leaned over to Kaiden. "I thought you were the XO."

Kaiden cocked an eyebrow. "Really? I thought you were."

She watched as the Makos, outfitted with bulldozer attachments, pushed the bodies into piles on both sides of the Beam to the Citadel. Fires burned as mass graves were being cremated to make room for more bodies. If there was a hell on Earth, this was it. But she didn't dare shed a tear, not in front of other people like this.

Miranda held a miniature keychain model of the Normandy in her hands, one that John had gotten her before he turned himself in to the Alliance. It was a model of the SR-1 actually, but John cleverly crossed out the one and wrote two in with a magic marker. He even had Mordin use his surgeon's hands to paint a small Cerberus logo on the front. It was the most pathetic gift she had ever received. She loved it.

But John couldn't be gone, she thought. She hadn't had time to thoroughly examine the body Commander Bailey brought down from the Citadel; the med bays were being used for _live _patients. Yet despite her logical mind, despite all the clues telling her otherwise, her heart told her Shepard was alive. She held the model of the SR-1 close to her chest, looking up at the clearing sky. While there was still a lot of smoke in the air, rays of sunlight was seeping through the dark layers.

She placed the Normandy model in her Alliance cargo pants pocket and continued up the street, away from the Beam. A convoy of Krogan trucks passed her on the street. Every day, more and more soldiers were being transported in from the country side, and the medical facilities were treating more and more injured. Yet the majority of the injured were civilians… which made Miranda sick, especially when children were coming into the camps crying with blood on their faces.

She gave a curt nod to Wrex, who was yelling at a pair of Salarians for screwing up on pitching a tent. Wrex nodded at her too, but continued to scream insults. The Krogan leader had been awake for the past three days trying to coordinate the cleanup on the ground and trying to establish any sort of off planet communication. There had been no contact with Sword since the Crucible's firing, and Miranda was getting worried about the status of the Normandy SR-2.

Before Miranda moved much farther down the street, she heard Wrex call after her. "Lawson! Get back here!" Miranda spun around and quickly headed back toward Wrex. He had his hand to his ear, obviously in the middle of a radio call. "Right… Understood, we are heading back."

"What's happening, Wrex?" Miranda approached him and stared at him with a piercing gaze. Wrex flagged down a truck and motioned for Miranda to follow him. "We've been using an old facility across town to track air traffic over the globe."

Miranda followed him into the door of the truck. "And?"

"And there are two possibilities. One, the Normandy SR-2 is touching down in Hyde Park. Two, Earth has really weird shaped birds."


	7. Hyde Park Landing

"Entering atmosphere in twenty seconds. Visibility… Ten meters. Damn the smoke is thick. Kaiden, bring the flaps up twenty degrees. I don't want to crash into Big Ben here." Joker was in his zone, flying high speed into the unknown with nothing but the controls of a starship at his command. The outside of the Normandy was beginning to light up orange as the ship plummeted through the upper layers of atmosphere.

Major Alenko was filling in for EDI, and he was doing a pretty damn good job. He hadn't been in the co-pilot's seat of a ship this large since the original Normandy's shake-down run, almost three years ago. Although the controls of this new Normandy were more sensitive, he only had to worry about minor airfoil adjustments while Joker concentrated on maneuvers.

While the repairs had gone smoothly from the inside, exterior hull damage was making the flight through the thick, smoky air near impossible… for any pilot besides Jeff Moreau. Kaiden could hear the bulkheads creaking from the increased stress on them, the structure of the ship swaying back and forth. The whole crew was trusting that Ken and Gabby's calculations for a smooth landing on Earth were correct. It's not like they had a choice anyway, they needed to get Shepard into surgery soon; the Normandy's med bay could not support him for much longer.

The proximity alarms began to blare all over the cockpit. "Warning: Proximity to ground structures unsafe. Advise immediate course correction." The nav computer was shouting out all kinds of warnings.

"Shut up and let me fly EDI!" Joker immediately bit his tongue to stop the last word from slipping out, but he couldn't. Kaiden looked over at him, but didn't say anything. _Perhaps we can find a way to repair her back on Earth… _ Kaiden idly thought to himself.

The nose of the frigate finally broke through the layer of smoke above London, and Joker started to look for a safe landing area. "There! Hyde Park is clear." Kaiden pointed out the window at a large patch of green near the city.

Joker only nodded and began to decrease their rate of descent. "Tell our crazy Asari friend that we are nearing the ground."

Liara's face appeared on one of the terminals next to him. "I heard that Joker. As soon as we are settled above the ground, lower the cargo door." The transmission cut.

Kaiden snickered from his seat. Joker snapped his head in his direction. "What, not my fault Liara is always angry!"

"Only when she's talking to you, Joker."

* * *

Liara inhaled sharply. This was going to work. This all had to work. She wasn't going to let Shepard die like this, not after all that he had done for the galaxy. He wasn't going to be killed by this crazy Cerberus bitch's mistake. Garrus and Tali flanked her on both sides.

There was some hissing as the locking clamps released, and slowly the door dropped onto the moist, dewy Hyde Park grass. Oddly enough, this area of London had not been touched during the Reaper occupation. The outside air filled the cargo bay; it was heavy with the smell of smoke and felt cool to the touch.

Beyond the door, Liara could see a collection of hundreds of soldiers, all of different species, but she did not see any humans. Ironically, although many humans were xenophobes, the welcoming party to their own home planet was composed entirely of aliens. Several construction spot lights illuminated the park. Besides the lights, the surrounding area was relatively dark, minus the still burning skyline in the background.

The three walked down the ramp and onto solid earth. They continued along toward the soldiers, who were holding their ground about two hundred meters from the cargo bay of the Normandy. In the distance, the faint sound of gunships flying could be hear in addition to heavy traffic on London's roads… those that were still usable that it.

One lone male Quarian approached from the crowd of soldiers and began to close the gap between them and the three Normandy crewmen. When there was just ten meters left, Tali called out, "Reegar!"

The Quarian stopped. "Mam." He saluted. "Colonel Kal'Reegar, Hammer Team marines." He saluted Liara. Liara gave a half salute in return. Then it dawned on her.

"Reegar! Shepard received an email that you and your squad were dead!"

Reegar nodded. "If it weren't for an N7 team of Krogan and Turians pulling us out of the fire, we surely would have died in that shuttle crash on Palavan."

Liara continued to talk, prompted the other three to follow suit. "What's the situation down here?"

"Hammer Team has relieved much of the original Earth defense force, and is currently treating all of the wounded, both civilian and military."

They were now walking among the crowd of solider toward what seemed like a small radio mounted on a Krogan truck. Liara turned her head toward Kal'Reegar but continued forward. "What about the geth?"

"They all seemed to drop dead, mam. We had some of my techs look them over, but we can't seem to reactivate them."

"Whatever you do, do not dispose of them. There is a way we can fix them."

Garrus leaned forward to Liara. "What about EDI?"

"Garrus, I can't discuss the specifics as of yet. Not till I am sure I know what the problem is."

Tali now stepped up to face Liara eye to eye. "We can reactivate the geth?! Why not EDI?! Why not Shepard?! What are you hiding from us T'soni?!"

Liara sighed. "Garrus?"

Garrus nodded and led Tali away toward group of oak trees. "C'mon Tali. I'm sure Liara has a good plan on how to fix all this."

Liara and Reegar stood alone while Liara was fiddling with the radio. A green salarian approached them from the crowd of soldiers. "Excuse me, is there a problem here?"

"No, there is no prob…" Liara turned around. "Kirrahe?"

The Salarian smiled. "Reegar and I have been working close together on repairing the planet's communication grid. We had no idea you were in the system until you were right on top of us."

Liara turned back to the radio. "We have the entire Second Fleet of the Alliance sitting in lunar orbit complete with medical supplies and food."

Reegar looked up. "Great. Why aren't they here yet?"

Liara didn't take her eyes off the radio console. "Because they are a bit cautious of the Reaper Fleet sleeping in orbit."

* * *

"At least I'm not driving this time, eh Miranda?" Wrex smiled from his seat across from her as the truck rolled relatively smoothly down Bayswater Road. Miranda didn't even look up, she just kept sliding the thermal clip of her Locust submachine gun in and out.

"Look, I'm sure they have a perfectly good explanation for being gone so long…"

"No Wrex, they don't. They either left Shepard behind on the Citadel, or one of the crew is now giving orders because there is no way Shepard would leave Earth behind for a second time!"

Wrex sat in silence and let Miranda continue her rant. "I mean, if he is injured and they think they can support him in the Normandy's med bay all this time… Can this truck go any faster?!"

"Look, kid. I bet your boyfriend is fine. I remember back when we were exploring some uncharted world back in the Saren days… He took one bad step and fell down the…"

"Please, Wrex. I need to think."

He nodded and climbed up toward the front of the truck to talk to the driver. Miranda sat there alone, clad in her Alliance working uniform, one that Shepard had worn on numerous occasions when he visited her during the war. She just kept checking her Locust, not that she was expecting a fight. But it killed time for her, which is exactly what she needed until they arrived at Hyde Park.

She had spent that last day hearing all sorts of grieving about Shepard, but only now did she feel like it might actually be true. She'd have to be able to accept the news that her lover is dead, and it is quite possible she could easily have done that… two years ago. Ever since John had come into her life, she had come to learn what love really was… and she had come to expect a day when it would all go away.

_Not today, _she thought to herself. _Please, God, not today. _She stopped at her own thoughts of God. While Shepard never talked about religion onboard the Normandy, she sensed that he was slightly spiritual. However, the only time she saw him pray was before the suicide mission, and even then it was with Garrus and to the Turian spirits for strength. She shook her head, she needed to focus. The truck stopped and the driver called out, "We're here."

Wrex hopped out first and held the door as Miranda followed. She squinted her eyes at the spotlights in the distance. It took her a moment to realize that the spotlights were being reflected off of the shining hull of the SR-2, its topmost part rising high above the trees. With one look over at Wrex, she hurried off toward the ship at a flat out sprint.

_He's got to be onboard. I know it! When am I wrong? _Miranda hurried between trees until she saw the silhouette of what must have been a Turian and a Quarian next to a large oak tree. The light caught their armor in just a way that she could see familiar colors. "Garrus! Tali!"

The Turian spun around first, so fast his feet turned up turf. Tali's eyes followed, and when she realized who it was that shouted after them, she ran with her arms out-reached. "Miranda!"

The two embraced in a hug, not necessarily out of undying friendship, but of utter relief that the war hadn't claimed any more of the old crew. Garrus stood awkwardly by the side, trying to decide how he was going to break the news to Miranda. After a few more seconds, Miranda pulled away from Tali and finally asked it. "Where is Shepard?"

Garrus rubbed his foot into the ground and began to speak. "Well…"

"Shepard is stable, but things aren't looking good." Liara walked up to the group from the shadow of one of the trees. Tali looked over at her questioningly. "Tali, Colonel Reegar needs help radioing the Second Fleet. See what's wrong, and if they need more help with planetside systems, go with their techs."

Tali nodded and proceeded back to the group of soldiers. All that remained were Liara, Garrus, and Miranda... until Wrex came jogging up behind them. "Blast it woman, a Krogan can only run so fast." He looked up and saw the two familiar faces.

"Liara! Garrus!" He ran up to the group and picked all three of them up in a huge hug, laughing all the while he was doing it. He held them there for several seconds before Garrus spoke up.

"Uhh… Wrex? We can't breathe." Wrex laughed even harder as he set them down.

Miranda looked over at Liara, who was brushing the ash off her shoulders from Wrex. "He's alive?! What do you mean, 'things aren't looking good?'" Miranda was trying to fight back the tears of relief, still maintaining her professional look. She was calmer than most would after finding out that the love of their life was alive. That is… until Liara spoke next.

"I thought you would know. You are his doctor, aren't you?"

"Liara! Cut it out! What's wrong with him?" Miranda flared up her biotics, covering her arms and hands in a blue aura. She didn't flare the biotics up in anger, but rather an act to show that she was desperate. A slightly saddened expression crept on her face, and her mouth was slightly gaping.

"Obviously enough for you to put a neural chip in his head, bitch!" Liara set her biotics up too. That sent Miranda over the edge. She now sharpened her expression and put on her hold "Ice Queen" look.

"Uhhh… girls? Can we be civilized here?" Wrex scratched his head, unsure if he needed to pull out his shotgun to quell this quarrel.

"Says the Krogan Warlord!" Liara snapped back at Wrex.

"Urdnot Wrex has been instrumental in the retaking of Earth! Which is more than you can say, you Asari coward!"

"I was saving John's life!"

Miranda charged her biotics now, a piercing look in her eye. "Saving him from what?!"

Liara finally gave into her anger and threw a massive shockwave in Miranda's direction. "From you!"

Miranda put up a barrier as fast as she could, but the shockwave still made her stumble backwards. "From me?! I didn't cause this!" She used her biotic slam on Liara, forcing her upwards. Liara grabbed onto one of the tree branches and hung on as Miranda tried, and failed, to push her into the ground.

Then the shots starting firing. Both Garrus and Wrex fired warning shots from their sidearms up into the branches, causing a flock of birds to fly off. Wrex spoke up first. "Both of you shut up. You'll wake the Reapers!"

Garrus let the Paladin hang loosely in his hand off to his side. "Liara, this is not the way you said you'd handle this. Go back up the Normandy, and we'll be there soon."

Liara dropped from the branch and spun around, but not before giving Miranda a deathly stare down, which Miranda shot right back at her. After Liara was out of earshot, Garrus approached Miranda. She was still glaring at Liara as she was leaving.

"It's the control chip."

Miranda shifter her glare to him. "Excuse me?"

"The one you and the Illusive Man wanted to install on him during Project Lazarus. Apparently it's keeping him in a coma."

Miranda looked puzzled. "But… it shouldn't do that. We didn't install the final components. All it is a simple neural hookup! The only thing…"

Garrus crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I repurposed it to run some neural connections through it… If the Crucible pulse somehow overloaded synthetic minds… then there could be a chance that the overloaded chip is blocking his neural pathways."

Wrex huffed. "So, what you are saying is that chip is keeping him asleep?"

Miranda nodded. "Simplified but accurate."

Garrus walked over to Miranda and looked her in the eye. "Do you think you could remove it? To save Shepard's life?"

Miranda looked off toward the side a moment. The warning shots fired by Wrex and Garrus prompted the soldiers to send a Salarian out after them. He was making his way across the grass now. Miranda looked back at Garrus after a moment of contemplating. "No. If I go in for neurosurgery to remove the chip, there is a good chance that the neural pathways won't reconnect, and he will be trapped in a coma permanently. The only way this could work would be if he were clinically brain dead, without activity in his neurons. That's why we couldn't remove the chip during Project Lazarus… we didn't have the time or money to kill him only to resurrect him again."

Garrus looked terse for a moment and smiled. "I think Liara has a plan to get around that. C'mon, I'll take you aboard to see him."

Miranda's expression loosened and she managed a slight grin. "Thank you, Garrus."

The Salarian soldier ran up to the three. "What the hell is going on over here?"

Wrex stood up straighter and smirked. "Just a typical Normandy crew reunion!"

* * *

"Give me another plasma torch! And somebody keep a fire extinguisher ready!"

Tali was busy burning through a utility panel on the side of the radio… unfortunately for her, Krogan radios were both primitive and nearly indestructible.

A Krogan sheepishly handed over a plasma torch, which Tali snatched out of his hands. "You know, Quarian. We've had our best techs work on this and other radios. They can't seem to figure out the issue. I doubt you can."

Tali stopped burning though the panel and spun around to face the Krogan, plasma torch in hand. She held it up to the Krogan's eye and began shouting. "That's because I AM the best tech on the planet!"

The Krogan backed up a few feet. Tali returned to the panel. "And I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because I've worked on the most state of the art ships in the galaxy for almost three years now." She ripped a part of the metal paneling off, continuing to burn away the excess clamps. "Or… maybe it's because I've worked on radios just like this one under stress on an asteroid bound for Terra Firma with Shepard! That was damn fun!" Tali was attracting a lot of attention from the surrounding Krogan troops.

She peeled off the last chunk of metal before peering inside at the circuits. She threw the spent plasma torch at the Krogan who was heckling her before shouting back. "Or… Despite all that, maybe it's just because I am ballsy enough to open the damn radio, inspect the circuits, and use my damn BRAIN to see that your secondary capacitors are fucking burnt out!"

Tali jumped off the side of the truck and stared down the entire crowd of Krogan. "Now listen to me! All of you! I want you to go assemble your _best techs, _and tell them that Commander Shepard's personal engineer wants them to gather all the radios you have and hook up their transmitters directly to large batteries. Preferably Mako batteries since these damn Krogan trucks suck! Tell them to amplify the internal power on the radios to give them a boost to pierce the smoke and ash in the sky! Earthbound communications equipment was never designed to handle this much material interference in the atmosphere!" When no Krogan even budged, Tali flung out her omni-blade. "MOVE IT!"

The Krogan quickly hurried away to call up the Quarian and Salarian repair teams. The sounds of heavy feet crushing dead grass made Tali feel particularly alive for a moment- it was a long time since she heard feet rustling grass. After all the Krogan had either gotten into their trucks to speed off for the tech camps or gotten far enough away from Tali to call up their Quarian partners, Tali leaned back against the truck and sighed. _Good work, Admiral's daughter. Good damn work, _she thought to herself.

Behind her came some laughing which grew louder and louder as its source stomped the ground under his feet. An unmistakable face rounded the side of the truck. "Grunt!" Tali ran up to hug Grunt, but Grunt put his hand forward to stop her.

"Sorry, kiddo. Go see Papa Wrex if you want hugs." Grunt gave a toothy grin. Even in the darkness of the early morning, the teeth stood out as fierce and menacing.

Tali playfully put her hands on hips. "'Kiddo?' You are younger than me!"

Grunt leaned his right side up against the truck, making it shift forward ever so slightly even with the emergency brakes on. "I reached more maturity in the tank in less than a year than you gained in your entire life." He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Whatever, you are still going to be a baby Krogan to me, your dear Aunt Tali."

"Would that make Zaeed my crazy uncle or rowdy grandpa?"

Tali thought for a moment. "Definitely crazy uncle."

The two shared a laugh for a few minutes before the even realized that somebody was watching them from on top of a nearby street light. A figure clad in all black sat perched like a bird at the utmost tip of the light post, before sliding down and landing on the soft, green earth.

Even without removing the hood over her face, the figure was unmistakably Kasumi Goto. "Good work on those Krogan, Tali. They wouldn't have believed it if the Master Thief had told them about boosting the internal power."

Grunt smiled at Kasumi and took his weight off of the truck. "How is it, in the smoky, dark hell hole called Earth that the Normandy crew can always find each other?"

"Jeez, bro. Don't get all poetic or anything." Kasumi walked past Grunt and gave Tali a fist-pound before taking a seat on the truck's bumper.

"So what's your story, Kasumi? Where were you in all of this?" Tali looked over at her.

"Oh, there's not much for me to steal from the Reapers. I had much more fun cloaking around the Citadel with Commander Bailey and using the Citadel's security systems against the husks." Kasumi peeled back her hood ever so slightly, exposing a few scratches and bruises on her face. "At least... some of it was fun. Some… reminded me a whole lot of Shepard's suicide mission."

Grunt scoffed at the scratches. "Girl, if I could get this armor off my back here, we could compare the scars I have from this damn war to your's. How's canyon to creek sound for a comparison?"

The two girls laughed at Grunt's analogy. Tali then turned to Kasumi to ask another question. "Is it really gone to hell up there? On the Citadel?"

"I've seen the vids from Saren's attack. Combine those with what we saw at the Collector Base, and you'll have a pretty good picture of what things are like up there. But don't worry… Shepard's hot tub still works fine."

Grunt scratched his head. "Wait a minute, how did you get down here? I thought the Beam is only being used for to ferry messengers back and forth."

"Dude, I am the Master Thief! Donovan Hock's vault? Broke in. Collector Base? Broke in. Hanar embas…

Before Kasumi could finish, there was a loud thundering as the Normandy engines fired up, sending up a huge cloud of dust and prompting Grunt and Kasumi to shield their eyes. With a very audible hum, the SR-2 lifted off the ground, with the lights from the automatic spotlights following it into the sky. As soon as it was clear of any obstruction, the frigate sped off into the clouds, leaving Tali behind.

The soldiers didn't seem to mind at all, however, as they now had contact from the Second Fleet through one of the transmitters that Tali had instructed them on how to fix. While their eyes did follow the Normandy as it ascended, they quickly returned to their tasks as soon as the ship had disappeared into the smoky clouds.

Kasumi was the first to speak. "Wasn't that your ride?"

Tali leaned back against the truck and made herself comfortable. "Nope. It's either Shepard's, Kaiden's, Liara's, or Garrus's ride. Although Joker might object."

* * *

The only thing she could hear was the steady beep of the heart monitor next to the bed. Other displays showed the status of other vital organs… liver, kidneys, stomach… and his brain. Right away, Miranda noticed that most brain activity had stopped, with almost zero activity in his cerebrum due to the presence of the control chip.

Garrus sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed reading a hard copy magazine on firearms. Although he wanted to give Miranda and Shepard some privacy, he wanted to remain here to protect Miranda in case Liara had another one of her fits. He tried to distract himself by looking through an article about the new model of Viper sniper rifles being produced later that year, only to be brought back down to reality when he noticed that the rifles were to be manufactured onboard the Citadel.

Miranda slowly took John's hand in her own, feeling the cold, numbness of his fingers intertwined in her own. She wasn't going to cry now, but she did manage to sigh out of anxiety. She closed her eyes, wishing that all of this was a dream. The one man who she bet would survive this was now kept aloft only by a few medical machines. She released his hand and reached into her pocket to grab the miniature Normandy SR-1 model. Slowly, she opened his hand up, placed the model in it, and closed his hand around it.

There was a hissing on the other side of the med bay, as Dr. Chakwas and Liara entered. Garrus stood up, subtly placing his hand on his sidearm. "You can leave now, Garrus. We have some medical issues to discuss with Miss Lawson." Chakwas smiled up at Garrus as he grudgingly got up to leave the room. As he passed Liara, he subtly whispered into her ear, "I will be right outside the door, so don't try anything." Liara gulped and nodded. She realized she had made a mistake earlier, but being threatened by Shepard's best friend really sunk her confidence.

As soon the door shut behind Garrus, Miranda made a move to speak. But Liara was faster. "Karin, can you give us a few minutes?"

Chakwas nodded and proceeded over to the take an inventory in the medical storage cabinets near the door. Liara pulled down a curtain from the ceiling to wrap around Shepard's bed on all sides, much like typical Earth hospitals.

"Miranda… look, I'm sorry. And I know that is probably not enough for you, but that's all I have at the moment. With Shepard like he is now, and the fact that we almost lost it all due to what seemed like an oversight on my part… I just… I apologize. When I found the control chip in his brain, I was so aggravated that the woman John placed all of his trust in could possibly end up being the death of him…"

Miranda held her hand up to stop Liara. "I get it. I still don't forgive you yet for accusing me of purposefully harming John, but I get it. You were in a tough situation, and you had a hell of a lot more riding on your theories than anybody in galactic history. But I want you to know I am going to do everything I can for John. I love him."

Liara looked down at the ground. "I love him too." She looked up at Miranda, who had the most puzzled face on now. Tears began to stream down Liara's face now. "He was my first. Shepard was. But even then… I don't think he felt the way I did about him. I think it was just an emotional release from the loss of Ash. He had feelings for her a while back, you know that?"

Miranda didn't know what to say. She just stood there in silence for a moment before replying. "Liara… I don't know what to…"

"No. Don't say anything. I don't love him that way anymore. I love him as a brother. And I am right there with you, Miranda. I won't rest until he is up and moving again, even if that means another Project Lazarus."

Miranda extended her hand. "Are we good?"

Liara shook her hand. "We are."

Joker came over the intercom. "Sorry to interrupt whatever is going on down there, but we are almost at our destination."

Liara smiled and turned toward Chakwas's desk. Miranda grabbed her arm and spun her back around. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Huerta Memorial. On the Citadel. It's the only standing hospital in this star cluster that has the equipment we need to conduct this operation." She turned back around and walked over to the desk, followed by Miranda. Liara was shuffling datapads into a duffel bag while Chakwas was loading up the needed drugs into a storage container.

Miranda was right on Liara's heel. "You never told me your plan for this operation."

Liara, still packing the duffel bag, didn't turn around. "The chip cannot be removed while there is still neural activity in the surrounding tissue. Removing the chip could easily shut his conscious down completely and lock him in a permanent coma. And I doubt anybody, anywhere, has the equipment or money for a Project Lazarus reboot."

Miranda looked out the window as she noticed James and Garrus prepping their combat armor. "I'm sorry to bash your plan, Liara, but unless Shepard is completely brain dead, we need to find another way to remove the chip."

Liara smiled. "Who said anything about him being brain dead?"

"Garrus told me on the elevator that your plan involved 'killing him to save him.'"

"We aren't going to kill him. We are just going to move his mind elsewhere for a time."

The ex-Cerberus doctor stood their thinking for a moment. Simply cloning his brain and transferring his thoughts and memory was too unreliable. It would be highly likely that it would simply kill the old Shepard and make a copy. Miranda went through every possible solution until she finally said, "Ok, you've got me. What's your plan?"

Liara turned around to face Miranda. "I'm going to bond with him and try to pull in as much of his brain activity as I can. It's incredibly risky, but it's the best shot we've got. The bond allows the sharing of memories, knowledge, and thoughts, which are the three main functions of the cerebrum. While I pull all of that activity and information over to my mind, you can go in, remove the chip, and patch up the neural connections."

Miranda looked concerned. "It sound incredibly risky Liara. To both of you. Are you sure this will work?"

Liara grinned before walking past Miranda to help Chakwas. "I wasn't sure the Crucible would work, and look what happened!"

**A/N So I decided not to have a huge conflict between Liara and Miranda due to the fact that it would just slow down Shepard's recovery and so on and so forth. Don't worry, there will still be more inter-crew drama. Just wait for Jack to come back…**

**As always, give me a fav if you liked this, and if you are feeling really generous, write me a quick review. Every little bit gives me more encouragement to keep writing these.**


	8. Shores of Life After

**A/N Wanted to get another chapter out quick to make up for my lack of updates lately. Anyways, enjoy!**

With a jolt and a gasp, he woke up. Before he opened his eyes, a rush of heat and saltiness filled his lungs, the telltale signs that he was near the ocean. As he slowly peeled back his eyelids, careful not to open them too fast, light from a main sequence yellow star blinded his vision. Then, his fingers felt the course brittleness of sand. He was on a beach.

As his pupils dilated in adjustment to the bright star, he slowly sat up, careful not to get all sandy. Now that he had a better view of his surroundings, he noticed that the ocean was deep blue, with the dorsal fins of some sort of sea creatures breaking the surface far out past the shore. Small waves quietly crashed to the beach, sending tufts of seaweed to bask on the warm sand. The shoreline extended far in both directions, the furthest of extent of which could not be seen due to a distant haze. Shepard turned around slightly, and noticed that the beach backed up to a tropical jungle, with no sign of civilization anywhere.

Since he felt no pain, and he felt more energetic than usual, he pushed himself up off the ground and stood there a moment, calmly looking around in all directions. It took him a moment to realize that he was clad in his N7 armor, complete with his Kuwashii visor. However, after instinctually reaching for the Revenant assault rifle on his back, he noticed that his weapons were missing. Not even his Paladin was present at his side.

He began to walk towards a large rocky outcropping farther down the shore. Yet as he was walking, he noticed there to be a slight pattern in the sand in front of him, as if somebody had walked this path before him. Looking back, he observed that he wasn't leaving any footprints behind him in the sand, despite the immense weight of his armor.

The sun was beating down on his head, causing him to warm up. John decided to take a short break and walked up to the edge of the water. He placed his hands in, noticing tiny schools of fish swim up to inspect the darkly covered armored gauntlets now invading their space. He cupped his hands and lightly splashed the salty water on his face, letting the small droplets accumulate on his several-days-old stubble.

As he stood up to head toward the outcropping, he noticed something that he hadn't seen before. A large moon, much larger than Luna, was in view just behind the rocks, which is probably why he didn't notice it before. Then the realization hit him: _I'm not on Earth. _John's mind began to race; he was now able to question his situation.

"Hello? Is anybody out there?" He began to shout everything on his mind. Then he activated his omni tool and tried to raise the Normandy. "Joker, do you copy? EDI? Garrus?" There was no answer. He closed his eyes, fear and disappointment now filling his heart. There was one last question for his radio. "Miranda? Are you there?"

John jumped at the sound of giggling behind him. He reached for his Paladin, but then remembered it wasn't there. As he spun to meet this newly arrived guest, his jaw dropped at the sight.

The Salarian closed his eyes and did his trademark sharp inhale. "Shepard." Mordin opened his eyes and smiled. "Didn't expect you so soon." The Salarian doctor was no longer glad in his old lab uniform. Instead, he wore a basic white robe along with some brown sandals.

"Mordin, where are we?"

"Hard to explain. Will try… to help. We, you and me, are on a beach. Where this beach is, I haven't figured out yet. "

Shepard looked around toward the tree line, the sound of chirping birds and rustling in the underbrush being the only audible sounds. "Are we the only ones here?"

"Here? Specifically in this spot?" Mordin thought a moment. "Yes… we are the only ones _here._"

"And what happened? Why are we here?"

Mordin smiled and walked up to Shepard, placing a hand on his armored shoulder. "Follow me, and try not to step on any Cenchrus." When Shepard gave him a puzzled look, Mordin explained. "Commonly referred to as sand spurs."

"Mordin, I don't think sand spurs will be much of a problem for…" Shepard looked down. Now he was wearing the same white robes as Mordin, yet he had no sandals on. "What the hell just happened?"

Mordin smiled at Shepard's confusion. "Our science is not compatible with the science of this place." He inhaled sharply. "My guess is as good as yours."

Shepard decided to play along with it and shrugged. "Lead on then, Professor."

Mordin, followed by Shepard, walked up to the tree line and approached a small trail. "Hey what gives Mordin? Why do you get sandals and I don't?"

Still leading on through the trees, Mordin replied, "Made these myself. Sandals not included in the package; had to make due."

Shepard swatted a huge branch out of his way as he tried to catch up to Mordin, who was proceeding at an unusually fast pace. "Package? What's going on here? You never explained what happened."

The two climbed over a rather large log that was blocking their path. Shepard noticed small little insects crawling up the side of the log. Nothing out of the ordinary, until he looked closely at the insects and noticed they held small leaves coated with liquid, and they we placing them at various points on the trunk. Shepard watched for a few minutes with fascination, before Mordin cleared his throat. Reluctantly, Shepard left the log and continued to follow Mordin.

"Short version or long version, Shepard?"

Shepard smiled as they climbed a small hill. "Short, I guess. The long version for you would probably last the rest of the day."

Mordin chuckled a bit. "Accurate hypothesis. Alright… we died."

Shepard stopped in his tracks, prompted Mordin to turn around. They were halfway up the hill and deep in the jungle vegetation now. "What do you mean 'died'?"

"As in not living. No neural activity. The beginning of decomposition?"

"Enough Mordin! I can't be dead… I never experienced this place when I was killed during the destruction of the original Normandy!"

Mordin gestured for Shepard to follow once more, and again, Shepard reluctantly walked after him. "Never experienced or don't remember? Either way, Shepard, wasn't referring to you when I said 'we.'"

"What do you mean? Who else is here?" Mordin ignored that question.

"No, you, Shepard are happily sleeping inside your own mind. Trapped being the best adjective to diagnose you with."

They reached the top of the hill. When Shepard caught up with him, Mordin reached down into a bush on the side of the trail and picked up a small metal object, its surface glistening in the bright sunlight. "We are close."

Shepard decided to stop asking questions and let Mordin continue his explanation while they continued walking. "You are but a guest here, Shepard. But you cannot stay here long. Needed elsewhere."

"You mean back in real life?"

Mordin stopped first this time, giving Shepard a patronizing look. "Real life? Real life?! You think this isn't real life?!"

Shepard put his hands up in the air and shouted back. "You need to be upfront with me Mordin. I thought you were a scientist, not some cryptic forest priest!"

Mordin sighed and gestured for Shepard to sit down on a rock. They both sat there for a while looking at a small adjacent pond, with fish swimming just below the surface. "Remember back on Tuchanka?" Shepard nodded. "No, not the Shroud facility. Weyrloc hospital. Mission to rescue Maelon. Remember when we talked about religion after discovery of dead Krogan female?"

"So… you are saying this is the afterlife?"

Mordin thought a moment. "Yes… but not as your human religions understand it."

"Why is that?"

"Too complicated for you to understand."

"Now you are sounding like a Reaper."

Mordin chuckled. "Perhaps. Imagine this." Mordin placed his hand in the water and scooped up a medium sized fish that looked similar to a koi. "This fish spends its entire life knowing only what's inside this shallow, shallow pond. So shallow, that there is no up or down for him. He is too big. There is only left, right, forward, or backwards. Do you see how it is very similar to a two dimensional environment?"

Shepard nodded, following Mordin's every word. The Professor closed his eyes and inhaled sharply before opening them back up at the feeling of the flopping fish. "Now that the fish is out of the water, it is in a new world, a new dimension. Here, there is up and down, and I can move him from pond to pond. Confused at first, but enlightened as well." Mordin placed the fish back in the water.

Shepard watched the fish swim quickly back to its peers. "So, what you are saying is that this happened to you, Mordin? When you died?"

Mordin smiled and nodded. "My scientific mind tells me so. This is a new universe for us, Shepard. A new dimension. But I also feel that we will be moving on to a new one soon."

Shepard scratched his chin. "So… this is like Purgatory then?"

Mordin shrugged. "At best guess, yes. Harper already explained that to you, no?"

"What do you- that was a dream though!"

"And this isn't? Or were both not dreams at all?"

John sighed and looked over at the planet's moon in the sky. "How long have you been here?"

Mordin looked up at the sun, trying to discern the time. "Since this morning."

Shepard frowned. "Mordin, you died almost half a year ago."

Mordin smiled. "In that universe I did. In this universe, spent all day collected sea shells." He inhaled. "Now just need to run tests."

Shepard smiled and shook his head. "I missed you Mordin. I needed you there, on Earth."

The Salarian stood up and held out his hand. "No you didn't. Succeeded without my aid." Shepard grabbed Mordin's hand as he was lifted back onto his feet. Without another word, the Professor led him farther down the trail toward their unknown destination.

As they walked, John calmly observed the environment. The area was similar to the Amazon rainforest, where he had conducted some of his N7 training. There were vines from tress swaying in the light breeze, a steady cascade of falling dead leaves, and the lively noise of small critters rushing around in the brush. Whatever this place was, John felt surprisingly at peace here.

After another twenty minutes of walking, the two had finally reached their destination. After all that had happened so far in this strange land, John wasn't surprised to see the Normandy SR-1 fully rebuilt lying in a grassy field. Two figures also clad in white robes were busy making repairs to the hull with plasma torches. As John and Mordin drew closer, the two other turned around and stopped what they were doing.

Shepard could not cling to his calmness when he saw that the two were none other than Ashley Williams and Thane Krios. He froze, the weight of whatever universe he was in currently crashed into his heart at the sight of two of his greatest friends. He slowly approached them, his hands shaking now. Thane gave a curt bow and Ash simply nodded.

"You did it, John," Ashley spoke quietly. She could no longer stand still and rushed to John to embrace him. The two shared a long, hearty hug. Tears welled up in Shepard's eyes. Ash simply hugged him harder when she heard him sobbing.

"Ash… I'm so sorry." John tried now to bring his composure back. He didn't want to cry here now. He wiped his eyes on his robe's sleeve as he pulled back from Ash. They looked each other in the eyes.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, skipper. She's a good woman." Ash only had a single tear rolling down her face, which Shepard wiped away with his finger ever so gently.

John shook his head. "No, I am not sorry about choosing Miranda. I love her, much more than I loved you."

Ash smiled. "Damn, skipper. Who said anything about love? I was just trying to get you into bed."

Shepard chuckled dryly before looking up at the Normandy's bridge. "If I could have done Virmire over…"

Ash stopped him there. "There are no do overs in life, John. You, of all people, should know that."

"I know, but-"

"But nothing. You get no do overs with Miranda either. This is the last chance you are being given. People don't normally come back from the dead, let alone two times." Ash smiled and gave Shepard a friendly pat on the back.

Shepard stared into her strong, sharp eyes. Then he stared over at Thane, who was beaming at him a few meters away. "So… who's religion was right?"

Thane approached Ash and John now. "Neither and both."

John scratched his head. "You'll have to explain that one to me."

The Drell simply shook his head. "No I don't. You'll figure it out some day."

Shepard extended his hand to Thane. "I was able to finish the job on Leng."

Thane strongly gripped Shepard's hand and shook it. "Only because I softened him up a bit before you had a go." He smirked.

Shepard returned the smile and looked over at Mordin. "So what happens now?"

The Professor gestured for Thane and Ashley to follow him. The three stood together at the Normandy's airlock now. "Have to leave now, Shepard. Move on. There is another universe that awaits us."

Shepard looked around, his eyes darting along the edges of the field. "Wait… where is Legion?"

Mordin's saddened look answered it all, but Thane explained. "Legion was an AI, Shepard. He never had a soul."

John shook his head angrily. "No! No! Legion DID have a soul! Now where is he?"

Ashley sighed. "John…"

Mordin tried to give Shepard a reassuring smile. "I'm sorry Shepard. That's how our previous universe worked. Just because he didn't have a soul does not mean his actions meant nothing."

Shepard looked down at the ground, his toes now covered in silty dirt. "I will make sure that he is remembered. That all of you are remembered."

"You damn well better, skipper. I didn't die for nothing," Ash teased. She gave John a final smile and proceeded into the airlock. "I'll see you at the final debrief," she said, calling over her shoulder.

Thane was next, but before he entered, he turned around. "I'm sorry my body could not be there for Earth, Shepard. But know that whenever you are in a fight, my soul will still be with you. Goodbye, John Shepard." He turned back around and followed Ashley into the SR-1.

Now Mordin and Shepard stood alone one final time. Mordin smiled, but did not say anything. He turned around and walked into the airlock. John shouted after him. "Wait! Mordin! I still have questions!"

Without reappearing, Mordin simply replied. "Then find the answers. We will go over our own separate conclusions at a later date."

And with that, the door to the Normandy shut. There was sharp whistle accompanied by a loud humming as the engines fired up. Shepard took a step back and watched as the SR-1 flew into the sky for the last time. She hovered over the ground for a bit longer, as if Mordin, Ash, and Thane were still watching him. Then, as quick as ever, the Normandy sped away into the clouds toward some unknown destination.

He sat down in the grass, unsure what was to happen next. He figured he'd try to fall asleep again and see where that got him. As he made himself comfortable on the ground, he rested his head on a small tuft of grass and shut his eyes. Immediately after, he felt someone shaking his arm.

He opened his eyes and realized he was still in the field. He looked over his shoulder, and his heart sank. "Liara? You died too?" He could feel the tears starting to well up again.

The blue Asari smiled. "No Shepard, but I need you to come with me."

Shepard stood up and stared her in the eyes. Her gaze was bold, yet reassuring, and John finally realized she was sporting her usual lab suit. "What's going on?"

"We're trying to save you, John. But for that to happen, you need to come with me."

"Save me?"

"Yes, Miranda is about to perform neurosurgery on you. But for that to happen, you have to stop dreaming inside your own head. Come with me. You can dream all you want over in mine."

**A/N Tried to make this chapter not overly religious, but differing versions for the races' afterlives was a small theme in the Mass Effect trilogy, and I thought I'd attempt to hit on that with this chapter. Still not going to reveal if these are just dreams or actual spiritual experiences… yet.**

**To further explain, my canon Shep loved Ashley at first, but she died on Virmire when Shepard decided defending the bomb was more important. Liara was sort of depression sex before Ilos. Don't worry though, this Shepard loves Miranda a helluva lot more than he did Ashley.**

**Also, I finished my plot notes for this story. Looks like there will be at least 25 chapters in total, with some action on the way soon.**

**As always, please favorite and follow if you liked. And I would love some feedback on these dream sequence/afterlife chapters. These are kinda my own experiment, so any criticism/praise would be most appreciated.**


End file.
